Daily COVID-19 cases soared to well over two-thousand after the nation began easing social distancing early this week. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said Wednesday that two-thousand-667 infections were confirmed throughout the previous day, raising the country's accumulative total to 370-thousand-640 cases.

The daily tally jumped by a whopping one-thousand-78 from those reported Tuesday and rose to over 25-hundred for the first time since two-thousand-561 cases were reported on September 30. It is the fourth largest daily figure since the pandemic began. 

The sharp rise is attributed in part to eased restrictions and an increase in gatherings leading to the launch of “Living with COVID-19,” as well as fewer tests being conducted over the weekend. 

Of the new cases, two-thousand-640 were local infections, while 27 were from overseas.

Eighteen deaths have been reported, raising the death toll to two-thousand-892. The fatality rate remains at zero-point-78 percent, while the number of critically ill patients is up by 31 from the previous day to 378.