Travelers from China accounted for more than 40 percent of imported COVID-19 cases over the past week amid a resurgence of the virus in China.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) reported on Wednesday that out of 587 overseas travelers who tested positive upon arrival between December 29 and January 4, 41-point-nine percent were from China.

While the percentage of infected travelers from China were one-point-one percent of total overseas entries in November, the ratio surged to around 17 percent the following month.

However, since Seoul implemented stricter quarantine rules for arrivals from China on Monday to require mandatory PCR testing among other changes, positive cases from China soared to 76 percent of the total.

At a COVID-19 meeting on Wednesday, health minister Cho Kyoo-hong called for continued vigilance to prevent an uptick of the figures as it could spark another wave of viral transmission in the country.

Health authorities again appealed to the public to get bivalent boosters to mitigate the impact of the situation in China.