Daily new COVID-19 cases surpassed seven-thousand for the first time ever, with the number of critically ill patients also hitting a new high.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said Wednesday that seven-thousand-175 new infections were confirmed throughout Tuesday, bringing the country's accumulated caseload to 489-thousand-484.

The daily tally is the largest since the nation reported its first confirmed case on Jan. 20, 2020. The figure is one-thousand-823 more than the previous record set on Saturday. It soared by over 22-hundred from the day before.  
 
Almost 56-hundred domestic cases came from the capital region, accounting for 78 percent of all local infections. 

Amid the continued spike, the number of critically ill patients also hit a new high of 840, replacing the previous record of 774 set a day ago. The figure surpassed 800 for the first time after staying above 700 for seven consecutive days. 

Sixty-three more people died, the third-highest daily figure. The overall death toll surpassed four-thousand for the first time, reaching four-thousand-20. The fatality rate stands at zero-point-82 percent.

The number of omicron infections rose by two to 38.