South Korea's new COVID-19 cases stayed below 90,000 for the second consecutive day Friday but were sharply up from a week ago, in an upward trend in the curve amid a resurgence in the virus.

The country added 85,320 new COVID-19 infections, including 439 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 19,620,517, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Friday's tally is slightly down from the previous day's 88,384 but about a 20 percent jump from a week earlier, representing a steep jump in the infection numbers that had hovered in the four-digit range for most of June.

Daily infection cases have bounced back as the country is battling with a new COVID-19 wave, triggered by the omicron subvariant BA.5. The pace of the transmission is quickening amid the summer holiday season and eased virus curbs.

The KDCA reported 35 deaths from COVID-19, raising the death toll to 24,992.

The number of critically ill patients came to 234, up by 38 from Thursday.

Despite the virus resurgence, health authorities said they are not considering a rollback of the antivirus restrictions, like tight social distancing and business hour curfews, and that the post-pandemic efforts toward regaining normalcy will continue. (Yonhap)