COVID'19 outbreak: South Korea records around 900 cases, strengthens containment measures

South Korea on Tuesday maximised its containment measures against fighting the coronavirus epidemic in the southeastern city of Daegu and neighboring North Gyeongsang province where 724 cases have been reported so far.

Sixty additional cases of the virus were reported today morning that brought the nation's total infections to 893, Yonhap news agency reported citing the Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Two clusters of infections -- at a branch of a religious sect in the southeastern city of Daegu and a hospital in the neighboring county of Cheongdo -- have continued to expand, taking up 69 per cent, or 614 cases, of the total cases in the country.

The government has designated Daegu and the adjacent county of Cheongdo as "special care zones" to better cope with the outbreak of COVID-19.

So far, nine people have died in South Korea from the new virus that emerged in China.

The ninth victim, a 68-year-old woman, was hospitalised in Chilgok, a town in North Gyeongsang Province, due to pneumonia on Sunday and tested positive for the virus on Monday before she died of respiratory failure, health authorities said.

South Korea confirmed its first new coronavirus case from a Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, on January 20.

The country has released 22 fully recovered novel coronavirus patients from hospitals as of Tuesday morning, the KCDC said.

The number of people being checked for the virus and under quarantine came to 13,273, it added. The country has tested a total of 35,823 suspected cases, with 22,550 testing negative.