South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases rose above one thousand again on the first day of 2021. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said on Friday that the nation added one-thousand-29 new infections, raising the country's accumulated caseload to 61-thousand-769.

The daily figure hovered around one thousand over the past week. 

Of the new cases detected throughout Thursday, one-thousand-four were local transmissions, while 25 were imported.

Nearly 700 cases came from the capital region, including 358 in Seoul, 271 in Gyeonggi Province and 63 in Incheon. 

The nation's COVID-19 death toll rose to 917 as 17 more people died from the virus on Thursday. The fatality rate stands at one-point-48 percent. 

The number of critically ill COVID-19 patients increased by ten to 354.