Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, the two regions at the heart of South Korea’s coronavirus outbreak, have reported more than four-thousand cases so far. 

Health authorities in Daegu reported 520 new cases as of 12 a.m. Tuesday, while the province in its vicinity added 61 cases. The figures combined lift the total number of infections in the southeastern area to four-thousand-286, or 89 percent of the national tally, which stood at four-thousand-812. All other regions in the nation reported 526 cumulative cases. 

Later, nationwide infections jumped to five-thousand-186, including those compiled by 4 p.m. Tuesday, with regional figures set to be available on Wednesday. 

It marks the fourth consecutive day Daegu confirmed over 500 cases, a trend experts say will likely hold up for the time being given an extended survey of those living in hard-hit areas.  

Among the 31 people who were reported to have died of the disease as of Tuesday afternoon, 21 were from Daegu and nine others from North Gyeongsang. 

Community spread in Daegu and North Gyeongsang, which has been linked to the secretive religious sect known as Shincheonji and Daenam Hospital in Cheongdo County, appears to still be affecting other local institutions. A nursing home called Seorin, located in Gyeongsan, a satellite city in Daegu’s south, confirmed six other cases, bringing the total number of infections within the facility to 13.  

Among some four-thousand-300 members of the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji sect who were tested for the virus as of early Tuesday, 68 percent have been diagnosed with the disease.  

Thousands of other Shincheonji members in the city will be under quarantine in their homes for five more days until they undergo diagnostic testing under the watch of local officials. 

More than half of the people infected with the coronavirus across North Gyeongsang are Shincheonji members in Gyeongsan, and many of them came into contact with the nation’s 31st patient at the Shincheonji branch in Daegu. 

That patient, a 61-year-old woman, was the first in the southeastern region confirmed with the coronavirus and is suspected of having spread the disease to fellow adherents and other locals. 

Of all COVID-19 cases in the country so far, two-thousand-698, or 56 percent, are Shincheonji members while two-thirds of the cases in Daegu are associated with Shincheonji. 

As part of efforts to prevent further spread of the outbreak in the region, the North Gyeongsang provincial government said it shut down 70 local temples and facilities used by Shincheonji and carried out disinfection work.

The Central Education Training Institute in Daegu, the first state-run facility designated as a makeshift shelter for many regional patients with mild or no coronavirus symptoms, is also up and running after opening its doors to its first batch of patients on Monday.

Kyungpook National University Hospital, the operator of the treatment center, has dispatched five medical staff, who along with 13 officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, will provide around the clock care for patients. Three other similar facilities in the region are also slated to begin receiving patients soon. 

However, as they will not be able to accommodate the more than two-thousand patients who are waiting for hospital rooms in the region, Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin called on the government to issue an emergency order to secure over three-thousand hospital beds and medical personnel. 

North Gyeongsang Province Governor Lee Cheol-woo asked the government to designate the whole province as a special management zone to help contain the disease’s spread. The designation, which facilitates the provision of masks and other items and funds necessary for coping with the virus, currently applies only to Cheongdo County.