Over one-thousand-800 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Thursday. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) reported one-thousand-882 new cases diagnosed throughout the previous day, bringing the accumulated caseload to 243-thousand-317. 

It is 273 fewer than Wednesday, which marked the second-highest tally since the country reported its first case in January of last year and also saw over two-thousand new cases for the first time in five days. 

However, authorities remain alert with the delta variant becoming increasingly dominant and a growing number of schools resuming in-person classes. The daily cases have been in four digits for the 51st consecutive day.  

Of the new cases, one-thousand-829 were local transmissions while 53 were from overseas.

By region, the Seoul metropolitan area accounted for one-thousand-168 local cases, or 63-point-nine percent, including 566 in the capital city and 504 in Gyeonggi Province. Non-capital regions added 661 cases, including 93 in Daegu and 91 in South Chungcheong Province. 

Twenty more deaths have been reported, raising the death toll to two-thousand-257. This is the largest deaths per day since the fourth wave of the pandemic began early last month, although the fatality rate still stands at zero-point-93 percent.

The number of critically ill patients dropped by nine from the previous day to 425.