SEOUL — South Korea on Sunday decided to raise distancing regulations for the greater Seoul area to the second-highest level as part of its utmost efforts to stem a resurgence of the novel coronavirus, Yonhap reported.

The government announced that the Level 2.5 distancing, the second highest in the country's five-tier COVID-19 alert system, will be applied to the nation's capital area, which covers Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, for the next three weeks starting Tuesday. The government is also reviewing upgrading the distancing level in other areas.

The enhancement came as South Korea has been struggling with more than 500 daily new COVID-19 cases in recent days amid the third wave of the pandemic. South Korea can apply the Level 3 social distancing scheme should the number of daily patients hover around 800 to 1,000.

Over the past week, the average number of daily patients came to 514, with that of the greater Seoul area reaching a whopping 375. The country adopted the Level 2 social distancing scheme in the greater Seoul area on Nov. 24.

"We've come upon a critical period in the fight against COVID-19," Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said during a government COVID-19 response meeting. "Despite our efforts to tighten social distancing, the daily number of infections rose to more than 500 last week from 400."

The prime minister asked South Koreans to refrain from having private meetings and activities for the ensuing weeks and join the nationwide campaign to curb the virus spread.

"I'm deeply worried that a hike in the distancing level will restrict the daily lives of our people and weigh heavily on small businesses," he said. "But we can go back to our everyday life only after overcoming this crisis."

Meanwhile, coronavirus infections in the South Korean military exceeded 400 on Saturday, as six more cases were reported amid a continued cluster transmission at barracks, Yonhap reported.

Three soldiers at an Army boot camp in the border county of Yeoncheon tested positive while being quarantined, bringing the number of total patients there to 80, according to the Defense Ministry.

One Army officer and a Marine at the Sangmudae Artillery School in the southwestern county of Jangseong also tested positive after coming into contact with their colleagues who were infected earlier, the ministry said. The total COVID-19 cases reported at Sangmudae has grown to 23.

An Army officer stationed in Seoul was also confirmed to have been infected, and contact tracing is under way, it added. Up until Saturday morning, the military has reported a total of 402 coronavirus cases since the pandemic broke out in the country early this year, with the figure growing faster since mid-November.

Nationwide, the country added 583 more COVID-19 cases, including 559 local infections, raising the total caseload to 36,915, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA). It reported four additional coronavirus fatalities, bringing the total to 540. — SPA/Yonhap