Daily cases of COVID-19 in South Korea remained above one-thousand for the second straight day on Thursday, with the average of daily local infections over the past week well within the threshold for Level Three social distancing.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said as of 12:00 a.m. Thursday, one-thousand-14 additional people tested positive, raising the country's cumulative total to 46-thousand-453.

While there were 64 less cases compared to the previous day, it is the third time in the past week that over one-thousand people were confirmed within a 24-hour period.

Out of the new cases, 993 were local infections.

With an average of 882-point-six new daily local cases for the last week, the criteria has been met for authorities to consider raising distancing to Level Three, which would force more than 500-thousand businesses and facilities to shut down.

Seven-hundred-84 of the local cases were in the Seoul metropolitan area, with 420 in Seoul, the capital city’s tally surpassing 400 for the first time.

The death toll, meanwhile, climbed by more than 20 for the first time, hitting 22 and bringing the total number of deaths to 634.