Starting from Thursday, teachers and staff at child care facilities in South Korea will be required to undergo tests for COVID-19 once a month.

The Central Disaster Management Headquarters decided on Wednesday to implement the measure after it was briefed by the Health Ministry on ways to strengthen quarantine at child care centers.

The measure comes as cluster infections originating from people who work or use day care centers have grown across the country.

The number of COVID-19 cases involving daycare centers or kindergartens amounted to 36 between January and last Saturday, with the cumulative number standing at 635.

The number of teachers and staff at child care facilities across the nation is estimated to be around 300-thousand. 

Meanwhile, the government plans to begin providing AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to some 15-thousand teachers and nurses at daycare centers with children with special needs from next Thursday.