South Korea's daily coronavirus case count reached an all-time high of 2,434 on Friday as more tests were carried out after the Chuseok holiday.

Health authorities had expected the spike in infections after millions of people traveled during the holiday, which ended Wednesday.

It broke the previous high of 2,221 cases recorded on August 10.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said it confirmed 2,416 local transmissions, a majority of them in the capital region, and 18 brought in from overseas in the last 24 hours.

It raised the total caseload since the pandemic began to 295,132.

The country reported seven more COVID-19 related fatalities, pushing the death toll to 2,434.

The jump in cases is also likely attributed to a relaxing of social distancing restrictions during Chuseok.

The ban on private gatherings was eased, allowing up to eight people to gather on the condition that four of them are fully vaccinated.

But authorities retightened the rules from today, limiting the number of private gatherings to a maximum of six people.