Health authorities reported over five-thousand new COVID-19 cases on Sunday while the number of critical cases remained above one-thousand for almost a week.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Sunday five-thousand-419 new infections were reported throughout the previous day, raising the accumulated caseload to 607-thousand-463.

The daily tally dropped by over 420 from a day ago and by over 800 from a week ago.

The spike in infections appears to have slowed recently after special quarantine measures and tougher social distancing measures were enforced from last Saturday.

However, the number of patients in serious or critical condition marked one-thousand-81, staying above one-thousand for the sixth consecutive day.

Sixty-nine more people died of the virus, raising the accumulated death toll to five-thousand-245. The fatality rate stands at zero-point-86 percent.

The number of omicron infections rose by 33 to a total of 376.

Over 38-hundred of the domestic cases come from the capital region including about 19-hundred in Seoul and over 16-hundred in Gyeonggi Province.