The daily COVID-19 surge in South Korea returned to triple digits, as the government's ban on gatherings of five or more people at restaurants nationwide took effect on Thursday.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said as of 12:00 a.m. Thursday, 985 additional people tested positive, raising the country's cumulative total to 53-thousand-533.

The daily increase, which dropped 105 cases compared to the previous day, has been fluctuating around one-thousand over the past week.

Out of the new cases, 955 were local infections, down 103 from the previous day's one-thousand-58.

The average daily surge of local cases in the past week stood at 980-point-six, well within the threshold for Level Three social distancing.

Some 644 of the local cases were in the Seoul metropolitan area, while cases outside the capital region stayed in the 300s for the second straight day.

As the current Level Two-point-Five distancing in the capital area and Level Two distancing everywhere else are set to end on Monday, the government will decide to either extend the period or heighten the level this weekend.