Quarantine authorities will run COVID-19 tests on all employees and patients of hospitals for the elderly, mental institutions and senior care homes located in the wider capital area, totaling around 160-thousand people.

Following another cluster infection reported at a nursing home in the southern port city of Busan, authorities will also consider expanding COVID-19 testing to related facilities outside the capital region.

In a Wednesday briefing, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said the preemptive tests will be carried out on 130-thousand employees and 30-thousand patients at such facilities in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province.

Testing will begin soon and is expected to take about one week.

Officials said the decision was made in order to tighten quarantine on high-risk infection groups as social distancing has been eased to the lowest Level One from this week.