Health authorities in South Korea project that daily COVID-19 cases could climb to one-thousand in one or two weeks if infections continue at the current pace.

Jeong Eun-kyeong, chief of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), said during a regular briefing on Monday that the reproduction rate was one-point-43 for last week, meaning that one person infects about one-point-five others.

She said unless this rate drops below one, the spread will continue to grow. At the current rate, daily infections could rise to as many as 700 to one-thousand in the next one or two weeks.

Infectious disease experts have warned of one-thousand daily new cases since the start of the outbreak's third wave, but it's the first time a government quarantine official has formally mentioned the possibility.

The KDCA chief, however, added that stepped-up social distancing, less people-to-people contact and stringent mask wearing will help lower the reproduction rate.

She said there have been many challenging moments in COVID-19 quarantine over the past eleven months, but this winter could be the most crucial as the cold and dry weather and growing number of asymptomatic patients can raise the risk of infection.

Jeong urged citizens to avoid year-end gatherings and urged those showing symptoms to get tested as soon as possible.