South Korea once again registered nearly 40-thousand new COVID-19 cases, with the continued doubling in daily infections over the previous week.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Friday that 38-thousand-882 cases were reported throughout the previous day, including 261 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to about 18 million-680-thousand.

The daily tally doubled from a week ago and more than quadrupled from two weeks ago.

The number of critically or seriously ill patients receiving care at medical facilities dropped by four from a day ago to 65.

A total of one-thousand-426 hospital beds are set aside for COVID-19 patients across the nation and eleven-point-nine percent of the ICU beds are currently in use, up by zero-point-nine percentage points from a day ago.

The number of COVID-19 patients recovering at home came to about 176-thousand, up nearly 18-thousand from a day earlier.

Sixteen additional deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 24-thousand-712. The overall fatality rate remains at zero-point-13 percent.