South Korea has reported 520 new COVID-19 cases, marking the sixth straight day that the daily tally has been in the 500s.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Sunday that 500 local transmissions and 20 imported cases were detected throughout Saturday, raising the country's accumulated caseload to 72-thousand-340.

The daily figure dropped by 60 from the previous day, with the third wave of the epidemic showing signs of slowing in recent weeks.

Of the new cases detected throughout Saturday, 350 cases came from the capital region, with 142 in Seoul, 173 in Gyeonggi Province and 35 in Incheon.

In other parts of the nation, the southern port city Busan added 32 cases, while Daegu reported 15 and Gwangju 14.

The number of critically ill patients is down by eight to 352 while 13 more coronavirus deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to one-thousand-249. The average fatality rate stands at one-point-73 percent.