Amid sporadic COVID-19 clusters outside the Seoul metropolitan area, health authorities on Sunday decided to maintain the current social distancing level nationwide. 

Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said on Sunday in a press briefing that the current coronavirus situation is "severe" in the current Level 1 stage, but it's not yet time to heighten social distancing on a national level.

Park said that it's more effective for local governments to adjust the level depending on their specific situations rather than the central government applying a unified level across the country. 

Gwangju City and South Jeolla Province recently upgraded the level by one notch to Level 2 as the number of COVID-19 cases sharply increased. 

The health minister said that infections have been reported at small-scale facilities and meetings, which are hard for health authorities to manage, while the speed of infections is slightly fast in South Jeolla Province.