Seoul (South Korea), December 4: South Korea's daily coronavirus cases recorded an all-time high of 5,352 on Saturday, a day after the country announced tough restrictions for four weeks to control the spread of the omicron variant.
New cases of critically ill patients and deaths also hit record highs while an additional three confirmed cases of the omicron variant were reported to bring the total cases in the country to nine.
The daily new COVID-19 cases included 5,327 local infections, raising the total caseload to 467,907, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Saturday's total infections mark the highest number since the country reported its first COVID-19 case in January 2020 and exceeds the previous record of 5,226 reported Thursday.
The number of critically ill patients came to 752, up 16 from 736 on Friday, while the death toll came to 3,809, up 70 from a day earlier. The fatality rate stood at 0.81 percent.
Of the locally transmitted cases, Seoul reported 2,268 new cases, and the surrounding Gyeonggi Province posted 1,671.
The number of cases from overseas came to 25, raising the total to 15,842.
Source: Yonhap