South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 12-hundred for the first time as infections continued to spread throughout the country.  

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said one-thousand-241 additional people tested positive as of 12 a.m. Friday, raising the country's cumulative total to 54-thousand-770.  

The daily figure is the highest to be posted since the nation reported its first COVID-19 case on January 20. 

Of the new cases detected throughout Thursday, one-thousand-216 were domestic infections, while 25 were imported.

The Seoul metro area reported 862 cases, including 550 in Seoul, 257 in Gyeonggi Province and 55 in Incheon. The figure for Seoul was the highest to be recorded so far. In regions outside the metro area, South Chungcheong Province and North Gyeongsang Province added 79 and 67 cases, respectively, with cases reported across the nation. 

With the relentless spike in new infections, the number of critically ill COVID-19 patients jumped by 20 to 311. The country's coronavirus death toll rose by 17 to 773, leaving the country’s fatality rate from the virus at one-point-41 percent.