South Korea's daily count of coronavirus cases topped 800 on Thursday, the highest in nearly six months, due to new cluster infections and the spread of the highly contagious delta variant, officials said on Friday.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 826 cases, up from 762 a day before and the highest since Jan. 7 when the country was grappling with a third wave of COVID-19.

Almost 81% of the 765 locally transmitted cases came from the capital Seoul and its surrounding regions, KCDA data showed.