SEOUL, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korea reported 870 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Thursday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 66,686.

The daily caseload stayed below 1,000 for three straight days, but it hovered above 100 for 61 days since Nov. 8 due to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

The daily average number of confirmed cases for the past week was 850.

Of the new cases, 292 were Seoul residents and 294 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Thirty-seven were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 5,606.

Nineteen more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,046. The total fatality rate stood at 1.57 percent.

A total of 654 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 47,649. The total recovery rate was 71.45 percent.

The country has tested more than 4.56 million people, among whom 4,311,361 tested negative for the virus and 191,762 are being checked.