Health authorities reported over 23-hundred new COVID-19 cases on Friday, with the number of critical patients hitting another new record. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said that two-thousand-368 infections were confirmed throughout Thursday, raising the country's accumulative caseload to 390-thousand-719.

The daily tally dropped by about 150 from the day before but remained well above two-thousand for a third consecutive day. 

Of the new cases, two-thousand-358 were local infections, while ten were from overseas. The capital region accounted for 78-point-six percent of domestic cases at one-thousand-854. Other regions added 504 cases. 

The number of critically ill patients climbed to a fresh high of 475, replacing the previous record of 473 tallied the previous day. The spike is raising concerns that the country will be unable to move on to the next phase of the "living with COVID-19" plan. 

The death toll from the virus came to three-thousand-51 with 18 additional deaths. The fatality rate remains at zero-point-78 percent.