Five service members have tested positive for the new coronavirus, raising the total caseload reported among the military population to 1,580, the defense ministry said Friday.

An Army officer in Incheon, west of Seoul, and two soldiers, respectively based in Seoul and Yangju, just north of the capital, were confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 after a vacation, while another officer in the eastern county of Hongcheon was found to have been infected after developing symptoms, according to the ministry.

A soldier based in the northwestern border town of Yeoncheon was confirmed to have been infected while away from his base for a vacation before discharge.

An Army boot camp in the central city of Nonsan, where a cluster of 13 infections was recently reported, had no additional case, the ministry said, following virus tests on all of its 900 new recruits.

Nationwide, South Korea reported 2,052 more infections Friday -- the third largest daily figure since the country's first COVID-19 outbreak last year, prompting the government to extend the toughest level of virus restrictions in the greater Seoul area for two more weeks. The total caseload stood at 232,859. (Yonhap)