South Korea has reported over 70-thousand new COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row amid the continued upsurge in infections nationwide.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said on Wednesday that 76-thousand-402 cases were compiled in the 24-hour period through 12 a.m., including 429 cases from abroad, bringing the total caseload to some 18-million-938-thousand.

The daily cases rose by about 28-hundred from a day ago, nearly doubling from a week ago and quadrupling from two weeks ago.

It marks the highest Wednesday tally in 12 weeks since hitting 76-thousand-765 on April 27.

The number of imported cases is also a record high since the nation reported its first COVID-19 case in January of 2020. The previous record, 406, was set on January 14 of this year.

The number of seriously or critically ill COVID-19 patients also rose by five from a day earlier to 96.

A total of one-thousand-428 ICU beds are set aside for COVID-19 patients across the nation and 234 of them, or 16-point-four percent, are currently in use.

The number of patients treated at home jumped by around 35-thousand from a day ago to some 269-thousand.

Twelve were added to the coronavirus death toll, which now stands at 24-thousand-777, while the fatality rate long remains unchanged at zero-point-13 percent.