South Korea has reported a record 1,097 new coronavirus cases, including an outbreak in a Seoul prison that infected 185 as the country’s latest wave of Covid-19 worsens.

With daily infections over 1,000 for a fifth consecutive day, some medical experts criticised the government as being slow to introduce tighter social distancing rules.

The daily total exceeded Wednesday’s record 1,076, according to data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). Of the new cases, 1,072 were locally transmitted and 25 were imported, bringing the total coronavirus infections to 49,665, with 674 Covid-19 deaths.