South Korea reported 32 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Sunday local time, raising the total number of infections to 10,512.

The daily caseload hovered around 50 in the past week, with 47 reported on Sunday and Monday, 53 on Tuesday, 39 on Wednesday, 27 on Thursday and 30 on Friday each. Of the new cases, 24 were imported from overseas.

Three more deaths were confirmed, lifting the death toll to 214. The total fatality rate came in at 2.04 percent.

A total of 125 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 7,368.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has updated the data once a day at 10:00 a.m. local time from March 10, after having announced it twice a day.

Except for the first 30 cases, all the infections have been reported since Feb. 18. The country has raised its four-tier virus alert to the highest red level.

The total number of infections in Daegu, about 300 km southeast of Seoul, and its surrounding North Gyeongsang province stood at 6,816 and 1,335 respectively. It accounted for almost 80 percent of the total.

The numbers in Seoul and its adjacent Gyeonggi province came to 602 and 628 each.

Daegu became the epicenter of the viral spread here as the biggest cluster of infections was found in the metropolis with a 2.5 million population. Daegu has been designated by the government as a special disaster zone.

The Daegu cluster was closely linked to the church services of a homegrown minor religious sect, called Sincheonji, in Daegu. Members of the sect are known to sit on the floor closely side by side during church services.

Since Jan. 3, the country has tested more than 514,000 people, among whom 490,321 tested negative for the virus and 13,788 were being checked.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)