South Korea reported 147 more cases of the COVID-19 compared to 24 hours ago as of midnight Saturday local time, raising the total number of infections to 8,799.
Eight more deaths were confirmed, lifting the death toll to 102. The total fatality rate came in at 1.16 percent.
A total of 379 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 2,612. The number of recoveries kept surpassing new infections.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) decided to update the data once a day at 10:00 a.m. local time from March 10, after having announced it twice a day.
The virus infection soared for the past weeks, with 8,768 new cases reported from Feb. 19 to March 20. The country has raised its four-tier virus alert to the highest "red" level.
The total number of infections in Daegu, about 300 km southeast of Seoul, and its surrounding North Gyeongsang province increased to 6,344 and 1,243 respectively. It accounted for nearly 90 percent of the total.
The numbers in Seoul and its adjacent Gyeonggi province came to 314 and 321 each.
Daegu became the epicenter of the viral spread here as the biggest cluster of infections was found in the metropolis with a 2.5 million population. Daegu has been designated by the government as a "special disaster zone."
The Daegu cluster was closely linked to the church services of a homegrown minor religious sect, called Sincheonji, in Daegu. Members of the sect are known to sit on the floor closely side by side during church services.
Since Jan. 3, the country has tested more than 327,000 people, among whom 303,006 tested negative for the virus and 15,704 were being checked.
