Seoul, Dec 24 (IANS): South Korea on Thursday reported 985 new coronavirus cases, raising the total infection tally to 53,533.

The daily caseload fell below 1,000 after recording 1,092 in the previous day, hovering above 100 for 47 days since November 8 due to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province, as well as imported cases, reports Xinhua news agency.

For the past week, the daily average number of infections was 1,011.

Of the new cases, 314 were Seoul residents and 277 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Thirty were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 5,223.

Seventeen more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 756.

The total fatality rate stood at 1.41 per cent.

A total of 699 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 37,425.

The total recovery rate was 69.91 per cent.

Since January 3, the country has tested more than 3.88 million people, among whom 3,678,144 tested negative for the virus and 150,533 are being checked.