Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong predicted that daily COVID-19 infections would jump to ten-thousand and critical cases to one-thousand-900 within the month, should the latest resurgence accelerate.

At a press briefing on Thursday, Jeong called for emergency response measures, expressing concern over expected gatherings of people during the upcoming New Year holiday and school break.

She warned that the daily tally may even reach 20-thousand next month. 

This comes as the government assessed the nation's virus risk level to be "very high," in an emergency evaluation conducted from Sunday to Wednesday.

The level, based on 17 indicators in response capacity, the state of infection and vaccinations, has remained at the highest degree on the five-point scale since November 21.