Daily COVID-19 cases bounced back to over seven-thousand while critical cases hit a fresh high amid growing concerns over the new variant, omicron. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said Wednesday that seven-thousand-456 infections were reported throughout the previous day, bringing the total caseload to 583-thousand-65. 

The latest figure is two-thousand-254 more than Tuesday’s and returned to the seven-thousand level after four days under that. Compared to a week earlier, it is almost 400 fewer cases. 

The number of serious and critical patients stood at one-thousand-63, the highest amount to date. The previous record high, one-thousand-25, was set on Sunday. 

Wednesday also saw 78 fatalities, raising the accumulated death toll to four-thousand-906. The fatality rate remains at zero-point-84 percent.

All but 91 of the new cases were domestic infections. The Seoul metropolitan area registered five-thousand-446 cases, or 73-point-nine percent of local transmissions. 

Seven more omicron cases were confirmed, raising that total to 234.