The daily COVID-19 increase has climbed to its highest in 42 days amid an expansion of infection clusters linked to nursing homes and other medical facilities.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said as of 12:00 a.m. Friday, 155 additional people tested positive for the virus, raising the country's accumulated total to 25-thousand-698.

Of the new cases, 138 were local infections while 17 were imported.