SEOUL, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- South Korea reported 497 more cases of COVID-19 as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 76,926.

The daily caseload was down from 559 tallied in the previous day, but concerns remained about cluster infections linked to a Christian missionary group in Daejeon, about 160 km south of Seoul, that has a nationwide network.

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, 102 were Seoul residents and 116 were people residing in Gyeonggi province.

Eighteen were imported from overseas, lifting the combined figure to 6,221.

Eight more deaths were confirmed, leaving the death toll at 1,386. The total fatality rate stood at 1.80 percent.

A total of 538 more patients were discharged from quarantine after making full recovery, pulling up the combined number to 66,016. The total recovery rate was 85.82 percent.

The country tested more than 5.52 million people, among whom 5,305,839 tested negative for the virus and 139,424 are being checked.