A person arrives at a temporary COVID-19 testing station at an expressway rest area in Gyeonggi Province, Monday. (Yonhap)

South Korea's new COVID-19 cases bounced back to surpass 50,000 on Tuesday after reporting a steady decline last week.

The country reported 57,309 new COVID-19 infections, including 272 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 24,099,134, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

Tuesday's tally is up by more than 20,000 from 36,938 a day earlier. Daily infections have slowed after peaking at around 180,000 in mid-August in the latest virus resurgence.

The country added 35 COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 27,533. The fatality rate stood at 0.11 percent.

The number of critically ill patients stood at 547, down by 6 from the previous day. (Yonhap)