People wait for tests at a COVID-19 testing center in southeastern Seoul on Tuesday. (Yonhap)

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases in South Korea declined for the second straight day Friday, but infections stayed above 100,000 for a fourth day amid a fast-spreading omicron variant of the virus.

The country added 128,714 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total caseload to 21,111,840, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Of the new cases, 464 were from overseas.

The tally marked a fall from 137,241 the previous day, but it was higher than 112,858 a week earlier.

The number of seriously ill patients also increased to 453, up 35 from the previous day.

The KDCA reported 58 new deaths from COVID-19, down one from Thursday, raising the death toll to 25,499. The fatality rate was 0.12 percent. (Yonhap)