Authorities in Da Nang have announced that visitors from South Korea will have their health closely monitored, at a time when there is a surge in the number of infected cases in the East Asian country.

Healthcare workers in the central Vietnamse city have taken proactive measures to control the influx of tourists from South Korea and considered them as those coming from places hit by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Tourism officials have been charged with preparing plans to deal with tourists from the South Korean market amid such an outbreak, Nguyen Xuan Binh, deputy director of the Da Nang Department of Tourism, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Sunday.

The COVID-19 is hitting South Korea hard, with Daegu City in North Gyeongsang Province being the epicenter, Binh said.

Da Nang will pool information on flights from South Korea, particularly those from the outbreak areas.

South Korea is Da Nang’s largest inbound market, with visitors making up 56 percent of the total international arrivals, according to the local Department of Tourism.

There has been a 60-percent drop in the number of South Korean visitors since the novel coronavirus epidemic was first recorded.

Da Nang now keeps a close watch on visitors from South Korea and they will be asked to fill out in-flight health declaration forms, said Nguyen Tien Hong, deputy director of the Department of Health.

Such visitors will have their health status closely monitored, Hong added.

South Korea reported 123 new confirmed coronavirus cases and a fourth death from the virus, taking total infections to 556, Reuters cited the Korea Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention as saying on Sunday.

“More than half the additional cases were found to be linked to a Shincheonji Church of Jesus congregation in the southeastern city of Daegu after a 61-year-old woman known as 'Patient 31' who attended services at the church tested positive for the virus last week,” the news agency said.

“The woman had no recent record of overseas travel.”

The novel coronavirus stemmed from China in December and has spread to more than two dozen countries around the world, including Vietnam.

More than 78,000 cases and over 2,400 deaths have been reported all over the globe, with the vast majority in China.

Fifteen of 16 infected people in Vietnam have been discharged free of the virus from the hospital.

The other is being treated well.

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