President Moon Jae-in has said it is "of great concern" that the country's daily new COVID-19 case tally has surpassed two-thousand despite the people's sacrificial cooperation and quarantine authorities' committed efforts. 

At a meeting with his aides on Wednesday, Moon said while South Korea maintains a relatively better situation amid a global surge of the delta variant, it faces a critical point of possible acceleration in new infections.

Asking for continued participation from the public, whom he credited for leading a successful quarantine, the president pledged to exert all efforts to stabilize the latest wave of the epidemic.

According to authorities, as of 12:00 a.m. Wednesday, two-thousand-223 additional people tested positive for the virus in the country over the past 24-hour period, marking a fresh high since the pandemic broke out early last year.