Nearly 200-thousand COVID-19 cases were reported with continued rises in critical cases and deaths.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Thursday that 198-thousand-803 cases were compiled throughout the previous day, including 54 cases from overseas. The total caseload came to three million-691-thousand-488.

The daily tally dropped by some 20-thousand from a day ago, but increased one-point-two times from a week ago and two-point-one times from two weeks ago.

The figure had continually doubled from the previous week in recent weeks, but the rise slowed to a weekly increase of one-point-two times to one-point-five times since the middle of last week.

Health authorities currently assess the increase to be slowing down, expecting the figure to peak within a couple of weeks.

The number of patients in critical care rose by four to 766, staying above 700 for the fourth consecutive day.

The ICU occupancy rate for critical COVID-19 patients also climbed to 50-point-seven percent as of 5 p.m. Wednesday.

The number of deaths from the virus rose to a new daily high of 128, raising the death toll to eight-thousand-394. The fatality rate stands at zero-point-23 percent.

The number of home-treatment patients rose by some 36-thousand to over 857-thousand.