SEOUL, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's daily number of COVID-19 cases hit a new record high as the government eased anti-virus measures amid the higher vaccination rate, the health authorities said Thursday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the country reported 5,266 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 457,612.

The daily caseload was up from 5,123 in the previous day, keeping a record-breaking trend for two straight days.

The new infections surged for the past month as the government alleviated quarantine measures last month amid the higher vaccination rate.

The recent resurgence was attributable to cluster infections in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Of the new cases, 2,262 were Seoul residents. The number of the newly infected people living in Gyeonggi province and the western port city of Incheon was 1,490 and 354.

The virus spread also raged in the non-metropolitan region. The number of new infections in the non-capital areas was 1,136, or 21.7 percent of the total local transmission.

Twenty-four cases were imported, lifting the combined figure to 15,795.

The number of infected people who were in a serious condition reached a new high of 733, up 10 from the previous day.

Forty-seven more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 3,705. The total fatality rate was 0.81 percent.

The country has administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines to 42,593,798 people, or 82.9 percent of the total population.

The number of the fully vaccinated people was 41,129,620, or 80.1 percent of the population, while 3,385.821 people, or 6.6 percent of the population, received booster shots.