South Korea's new COVID-19 cases exceeded 100,000 for the sixth straight day on Sunday as infections stayed high amid the spread of a highly contagious omicron subvariant and increased movement encouraged by eased social curbs and summer vacation.

The country added 105,507 new COVID-19 infections, including 484 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 20,489,128, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

This marked the sixth straight day that daily cases hovered above 100,000 since the number jumped to 111,758 on Tuesday from the previous day's 44,654.

The latest infections were, however, slightly down from 110,666 reported Saturday.

The number of deaths caused by COVID-19 was 27, down from the previous day's 45. It raised the total death toll to 25,263, with the fatality rate standing at 0.12 percent. The number of seriously ill patients came to 297, down 16 from the previous day, the KDCA said. (Yonhap)