South Korea reported 686 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, the largest since late February.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said the fresh cases raised the country's accumulated total to 39-thousand-432.  

The daily figure briefly had fallen below 600 the previous day, but bounced back to nearly 700 amid the relentless surge in infections. 

The latest figure marks the largest since February 29, when it posted 909 during the first wave of the epidemic in Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province.  

Of the new cases detected throughout Tuesday, 662 were local transmissions and 24 were imported. 

The number of new infections in the greater metro area came to 524, including 264 in Seoul, 214 in Gyeonggi Province and 46 in Incheon.

Four more coronavirus deaths have been reported, raising the death toll to 556. The fatality rate stands at one-point-41 percent. 

The number of severely or critically ill COVID-19 patients jumped by 15 to 149.