ANKARA

South Korea’s daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 200,000 for the first time since the pandemic began, health authorities said Wednesday.

Infections have spiked since last December when the first case of the highly contagious omicron variant was reported in the East Asian country.

In the past 24 hours, South Korea confirmed 219,241 new cases, bringing the total caseload to over 3.49 million, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said. With 96 more related fatalities, the death toll has reached 8,266.

During last seven days, the country reported over 1.16 million and 659 deaths.

Despite the record increase, the government on Tuesday suspended the mandatory vaccine pass system for public places, including restaurants, cafes, departmental stores, movie theaters, and museums nationwide.

So far, 31.51 million people, or 61.4% of the country's 52 million population, has received booster shots. The number of fully vaccinated people is 44.37 million, accounting for 86.5%.