South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases jumped above 500 on Wednesday amid mass infections at religious educational facilities. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said on Wednesday that 559 new cases were reported throughout the previous day to raise the country's accumulated caseload to 76-thousand-429. 

The daily figure jumped by over 200 from the previous day to surpass 500 for the first time in ten days. The figure is feared to rise further as testing is under way at about 20 missionary schools and related facilities across the nation. 

Of the new cases detected throughout Tuesday, 516 were local transmissions, while 43 were imported.

More than 270 domestic cases came from the capital area as Seoul added 120 infections, Gyeonggi Province 137 and Incheon 17. 

Other parts of the nation reported 242 cases, as Gwangju added 112 infections, including 109 cases from the TCS Ace International School in the city. 

Seven more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to one-thousand-378. The fatality rate stands at one-point-eight percent.  

The number of critically ill patients remained unchanged from the previous day at 270.