SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- South Korea reported 404 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 73,518.

The daily caseload was slightly up from 386 on the previous day, but it stayed below 500 for three straight days.

The daily number of infections hovered above 100 since Nov. 8 owing to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

Of the new cases, 135 were Seoul residents and 126 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Thirty-one were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 6,011.

Seventeen more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,300. The total fatality rate stood at 1.77 percent.

A total of 712 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 60,180. The total recovery rate was 81.86 percent.

The country tested more than 5.19 million people, among whom 4,970,470 tested negative for the virus and 148,141 are being checked.