The daily COVID-19 increase in South Korea climbed over 400 amid a new wave of the epidemic across the nation.

The Central Quarantine Countermeasures Headquarters said as of 12:00 a.m. Thursday, 441 additional people tested positive for the virus, raising the accumulated total to 18-thousand-706.

The latest daily increase is the largest since the peak of the first wave involving the Shincheonji religious sect in the southeastern city of Daegu on March 7.

The daily increase has stayed above 100 for 14 consecutive days since August 14, with nearly four-thousand people newly infected.

Among local infections, 313, or 72 percent, of 434 were reported in the Seoul metropolitan area, as a cluster linked to Seoul's Sarang Jeil Church has now infected 933 as of noon Wednesday.

There are additional clusters in the capital region connected to an anti-government rally in Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square, other churches and a meat factory, while new cases continue to emerge elsewhere in the country.

Authorities are reportedly considering raising social distancing to Level Three, involving bans on gatherings of over 10 people and shutdowns of businesses.