South Korea added 970 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, falling below one thousand mainly due to less testing over the weekend.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said that the new cases raised the country's accumulated caseload to 56-thousand-872.

The daily figure dropped by 162 from the previous day to fall below one thousand for the first time since Thursday.

However, the fall is mainly attributed to a drop in the number of people getting tested over the weekend after Christmas.

Of the new cases detected throughout Saturday, 946 were local transmissions, while 24 were imported.

More than 650 cases came from the wider capital region including 359 in Seoul, 237 in Gyeonggi Province and 60 in Incheon, while the southern part of the country saw Busan recording 40 new cases and Daegu 21.

Fifteen more coronavirus deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 808. The fatality rate stands at one-point-42 percent.

The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients decreased by six to 293.