South Korea reported a daily record of 1,784 coronavirus cases for Tuesday, breaking a mark set last week, as the authorities struggled to get on top of a surge in outbreaks linked to the Delta variant.

Transmission rates have been kept relatively low across the country despite no lockdowns thanks in part to aggressive testing and tracing, but the fourth wave of infections is proving particularly hard to contain as the unvaccinated fall victim to the Delta strain, Reuters reports.

Genetic analysis of 2,381 infections last week found nearly 40pc were the Delta variant, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

More than half the total 1,741 Delta variant cases since December were diagnosed last week.