South Korea will consider expanding home treatment of Covid-19 patients, a health official has said, as both new daily infections and severe cases hit record highs, putting hospital capacity under strain.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported 7,175 new coronavirus cases and 63 deaths for Tuesday, the first time daily infections topped 7,000, while hospitals treated a record 840 critical and serious cases, Reuters reported.

“It is important to retain or reduce the trend of the current scale of the severely-ill patients within a week or two,” Son Young-rae, a senior health ministry official, told a news conference.

He said the government may need to make significant adjustments to the healthcare system if daily cases top 10,000, and consider expanding at-home treatment from around 50 per cent currently, as four-fifths of Covid-19 patients are symptomless or have only mild symptoms.