Seoul, Dec 25 (IANS): South Korea on Friday reported 1,241 new coronavirus cases, the highest single-day spike, taking the total infection tally to 54,770.

Friday's figure topped the previous high of 1,097 tallied on Sunday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The daily number of infections hovered above 100 for 48 days since November 8 due to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province, as well as imported cases.

Of the new cases, 550 were Seoul residents and 257 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Twenty-five were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 5,245.

Seventeen more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 773.

The total fatality rate stood at 1.41 per cent.

A total of 623 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 38,048.

The total recovery rate was 69.47 per cent.

Since January 3, the country has tested more than 3.93 million people, among whom 3,727,798 tested negative for the virus and 156,789 are being checked.