South Korea reported 28 more cases of the novel coronavirus, chiefly in the Seoul metropolitan area, bringing the national’s total infections to 12,563, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

The latest figure is nearly a half of Wednesday’s 51 new cases, which sparked concern over a growing number of infections from overseas and provincial areas.

Of the 28 new patients, five were imported cases and the rest were domestic infections. The death toll from COVID-19 rose by one to 282. The fatality rate stood at 2.24 percent. 

Gyeonggi Province and Seoul registered 9 and 8 cases and nearby Incheon added one new infection. Daejeon reported four.

The daily coronavirus caseload has been between 30 and 50 over the past week, with small infection clusters in the Seoul metropolitan area and Daejeon continuing to report new cases.

The agency said 44 more people were released after fully recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of cured patients to 10,974.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)