Korea's new Covid-19 tally bounced back to above 70,000 for the first time in two months on Tuesday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Korea added 72,883 new Covid-19 infections, including 50 cases from abroad, bringing the total caseload to 26,290,877.

The figure on Wednesday is the highest tally since Sept. 15, when there were 71,444 new infections.

The nation also reported 39 more Covid-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 29,748. The fatality rate stood at 0.11 percent. The number of critically ill patients came to 412, down one from the previous day.

Health authorities are concerned about the relatively low inoculation rate of a booster dose of the BA.4/BA.5- adapted bivalent vaccine during wintertime, which could accelerate the pace of the virus wave.

The government has been providing Pfizer's advanced Covid-19 booster shot for walk-ins and reservations for people aged 18 and older who were infected or vaccinated 120 days ago or earlier since Monday.

The BA.5 variant is currently the dominant strain in Korea, taking up around 91 percent of total infections in the first week of November.

Health experts urged citizens to receive vaccination and stressed that the government needs to take more active measures to increase the vaccination rate.

"When a person is infected with Covid-19 multiple times, the aftereffects, also known as long covid, will likely persist longer," Professor Kim Woo-joo of the Infectious Disease Department at Korea University Guro Hospital said. "The government should explain the necessity of vaccination in detail."

According to the KDCA, about 44.69 million among 52 million Koreans have been fully vaccinated. In addition, about 33.68 million people had received their first booster shots, and 7.57 million had their second booster shots.