SEOUL, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korea reported 559 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 76,429.

The daily caseload rose above 500 in 10 days owing to new cluster infections linked to a Christian missionary group in Daejeon, about 160 km south of Seoul, that has a nationwide network.

The TCS Ace International School, an unregistered school owned by the Gwangju branch of the International Mission (IM) missionary society, reported 109 new confirmed cases for the past 24 hours. Gwangju is located some 330 km southwest of Seoul.

The IEM School, owned by the IM missionary society in Daejeon, reported a total of 171 infections as of Tuesday.

The IM missionary society is known to run about 20 missionary training facilities across the country.

The daily number of infections hovered above 100 since Nov. 8, 2020 owing to small cluster infections in Seoul and its surrounding Gyeonggi province as well as imported cases.

Of the new cases, 120 were Seoul residents and 137 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Forty-three were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 6,203.

Seven more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,378. The total fatality rate stood at 1.80 percent.

A total of 685 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 65,478. The total recovery rate was 85.67 percent.

The country tested more than 5.46 million people, among whom 5,254,391 tested negative for the virus and 138,427 are being checked.