ⓒYONHAP News

South Korea's southeastern city of Daegu and nearby Cheongdo have been declared special quarantine zones amid a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in the area.

Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Friday announced the decision, calling the current situation an emergency. 

"[The government] will designate Daegu and the Cheongdo region of North Gyeongsang Province, which are facing difficulties following the recent surge of infections, as 'special management zones' and carry out decisive measures. It is most urgent to identify those exposed to [confirmed patients] and treat the infected. Hospital beds, manpower, equipment and all necessary resources will be provided without spare. Military medical personnel will be dispatched and makeshift shelters built for those who cannot quarantine themselves."

With nearly two-point-five million residents, Daegu is the fourth largest metropolis in the country in terms of population. Some 47-thousand people live in the adjacent Cheongdo County.

Most of the cases there are linked to the religious sect dubbed the Shincheonji Church of Jesus that is active in the region.

Health Minister Park Neung-hoo told reporters the government obtained a full list of the sect members and is conducting virus tests while they are placed in self-quarantine.

"As for the Daegu region, we have the list of some nine-thousand people of the religious group and have launched self-quarantine and [other] isolation measures in order to prevent additional infections. Local government officials will be assigned to manage [residents under] quarantine and the religious organization is also actively cooperating...."

Citizens in the area have been advised to delay scheduled public events while the beginning of the spring semester has been postponed for local kindergarten, elementary and middle schools.

Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin also called on residents in his city to wear face masks and asked them to stay indoors.

Since the surge in cases this week, the government admitted the outbreak in South Korea has now entered into a phase of "community-acquired infections."

However, in light of the localized nature of the outbreak, the government said it will maintain the nationwide crisis level at the second-highest "vigilance" on the four-tier scale.

The World Health Organization(WHO) says South Korea is able to manage the recent increase of novel coronavirus cases in the country.

During a daily news briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed the recent surge in South Korea.

"... And with measures they can take which is proportionate to the public risk they have, I think the number of cases are really manageable. And I hope that South Korea will do everything to contain this outbreak at this early stage."

Dr. Oliver Morgan, in charge of WHO's risk assessment, pointed out that the surge of COVID-19 in South Korea is localized and the cases are under tight management.

"The numbers of cases in South Korea reported today are actually from several distinct clusters, which the Korean authorities are following very closely. So though the number seems quite high, they are mostly linked to known existing outbreaks. So that hasn’t changed and it doesn’t signal a particular change in the global epidemiology, but it does signal that the Korean authorities are following up very closely, very vigorously on all the new cases and those outbreaks they’ve identified."

On Friday South Korea declared a “special management zone” around the southeastern city of Daegu, which has seen a sudden spike in infections. Most of the cases there are linked to the religious sect dubbed the Shincheonji Church of Jesus that is active in the region. South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said that the government will obtain a full list of the sect members and conduct virus tests while they are placed in self-quarantine.