The government has urged people in the coronavirus-hit Daegu City to refrain from going outside at least for the next two weeks to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Health Minister Park Neung-hoo, chief of the central disaster relief headquarters, made the call on Sunday, noting that a cluster of virus cases were mostly reported in certain groups or facilities in Daegu and Cheongdo in North Gyeongsang Province. 

In a briefing after a pan-government meeting, the minister asked Daegu citizens to voluntarily refrain from going outside at least for the next two weeks and to take a diagnostic test at government-designated clinics if they begin to show symptoms.

He made a similar call for non-Daegu citizens who recently visited the city, stressing that the government is making all-out quarantine efforts to protect the city from the virus. 

The government raised its COVID-19 alert status to the highest level of "serious" on Sunday.