SEOUL, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korea has reported 869 more cases of COVID-19, raising the total number of infections to 51,460 as of Tuesday noon.

The daily caseload stayed below 1,000 for two straight days, but it hovered above 100 for 45 days since Nov. 8 due to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

For the past week, the daily average number of infections was 1,014.

Of the new cases, 309 were Seoul residents and 193 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Forty-five were imported, lifting the combined figure to 5,161.

Twenty-four more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 722. The total fatality rate stood at 1.40 percent.

A total of 773 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 35,928. The total recovery rate was 69.82 percent.

Since Jan. 3, the country has tested more than 3.77 million people, among whom 3,569,843 tested negative for the virus and 151,129 are being checked.