The government has obtained the list of some nine thousand members of a religious group in Daegu City where a vast number of recent cases of the COVID-19 infections were confirmed.

In a briefing Saturday, the central disaster relief headquarters said the 93-hundred members have been asked to be self-quarantined or isolated at a facility in a preemptive manner even before finding out whether they made contact with coronavirus patients.

Deputy chief of the headquarters, Vice Health Minister Kim Kang-lip, said that those showing symptoms or who have had contact with patients are the first ones being tested for the virus.

Kim said the first list of over 44-hundred members of the religious sect have all been self-quarantined under the monitoring of local public officials.

Another 48-hundred worshipers will also follow suit and have their symptoms checked.

Kim said it was determined that it's best the church members do not venture outside so a mobile sampling and testing team will be running tests.

The government is also conducting COVID-19 tests on all patients and staff at Daenam Hospital in Cheongdo county where two patients infected with the coronavirus have died.