South Korea's new daily COVID-19 cases spiked to more than 600,000 on Thursday, setting another record high, fueled by the spread of the omicron variant amid an easing of virus curbs, Yonhap news agency reported.

The country reported 621,328 new COVID-19 infections, including 62 cases from overseas, raising the total to 8,250,592, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The death toll from COVID-19 more than doubled to a record high of 429, putting the total at 11,481.

South Korea has been taking steps to ease virus restrictions to regain normalcy despite the virus surge. The government is expected to announce Friday whether it will maintain the current social distancing or further relax the measures.