The government has unveiled a set of emergency quarantine measures to curb COVID-19 infections at nursing homes.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said on Sunday that in case of infections at nursing homes, it will separate the confirmed cases from those who came into close contact and those who tested negative.

These measures came as 996 cases and 99 deaths were reported last month at 14 nursing homes nationwide following cohort isolation, which refers to a lockdown of the entire facility.

The government has put nursing homes and similar virus-prone facilities hit by mass infections under cohort isolation, which has been criticized for aggravating the conditions of patients and the spread of the virus inside the facilities. 

To address the problem, the government decided to swiftly transfer those who had no contact with the confirmed patients to other nursing homes. 
 
Health authorities also decided to conduct virus tests on employees at nursing homes every week to prevent mass infections at the facilities. Previously, those virus tests were carried out every two weeks.