South Korea's daily COVID-19 cases dropped slightly to 396 as the country is set to begin its nationwide vaccination program. 

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said Thursday that the new cases raised the country's accumulated total to 88-thousand-516. 

The government plans to announce Friday morning new social distancing rules to be applied from next week, while monitoring the virus situation.
 
Of the new cases detected throughout Wednesday, 369 were local transmissions while 27 were imported. 

Almost 270 of the local cases came from the greater metro area, with 114 in Seoul, 132 in Gyeonggi Province and 22 in Incheon. Other parts of the nation added 101 cases.

The number of critically ill patients rose by four to 144 while five more deaths have been reported, bringing the death toll to one-thousand-581. The fatality rate stands at one-point-79 percent.