The government will announce on Wednesday new social distancing levels to take effect in different regions and separate quarantine measures to be enforced by local governments.

Senior Health Ministry official Son Young-rae said on Tuesday that the announcement comes as the two-week trial period for the recently revamped set of guidelines is slated to end on Wednesday.

Seoul and its surrounding regions, where the latest wave of the COVID-19 epidemic has accelerated, will remain at its toughest Level Four, which began a two-week run on Monday.

Amid signs of the virus' resurgence spreading from the greater Seoul area to outlying regions, other municipal governments are expected to raise distancing levels, extend the trial period or adopt harsher gathering bans.

The official called for vigilance against the rapid transmission of the Delta variant, saying its share in new cases jumped from two to four percent in mid-June to over 25 percent as of mid-July.