The government assessed the nation’s COVID-19 risk level at “very high” last week, as daily average infections for the period hit a record high of nearly 44-hundred.

In a Monday briefing, senior health official Lee Sang-won of the Central Disease Control Headquarters said the overall risk evaluation was "very high" nationwide and for the capital area, and "medium" for noncapital regions.

Lee said the assessment was unchanged from the fourth week of November, but indicators across the board indicate the situation has worsened. Daily average new infections last week jumped more than 25 percent to hit an all-time-high of four-thousand-392.

By region, the capital area reported over 34-hundred new cases per day on average, up 24 percent from over 27-hundred a week ago. The daily tally for the rest of the country also jumped 30 percent to 946.

The official said daily infections increased in all age groups last week with high figures continuing among seniors and teenagers.

Critical cases and deaths have also surged to nearly 700 seriously ill patients on average and 317 fatalities confirmed in the past week, with a majority of them in their 60s and older.

Among the 979 COVID-19 deaths over the past five weeks, 53 percent were unvaccinated or had at least one shot, while 47 percent were fully vaccinated. The virus reproduction rate has risen for the sixth week standing at one-point-16, indicating that the outbreak is spreading.