The ongoing wave of the coronavirus is worse than the country's initial battle that impacted the southeastern city of Daegu and surrounding areas in February, according to Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun. 

In a regular meeting of the country's COVID-19 headquarters on Friday, Chung noted that South Korea's daily infection figures have remained above the 500-mark for the tenth straight day. Most of the transmissions have occurred in the capital region. 

The prime minister pledged to enhance preemptive quarantine measures, including setting up some 150 temporary testing sites across Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province where people who could be asymptomatic spreaders can be tested. The sites will run through the year's end. 

Chung said some 800 additional personnel - including troops, police officers and civil workers - will be dispatched throughout the Seoul metro area to assist in speeding up epidemiological studies.

While crediting the decline in new religious facility-linked cases to members' active cooperation, he also urged them to continue quarantine protocols such as holding online-only services even in the Christmas season.  

Regarding the recent eight cases of the highly pathogenic avian influenza(AI) at poultry farms in the country, Chung ordered relevant ministries and local governments to mobilize all quarantine measures to prevent a nationwide outbreak of the bird flu.