The number of COVID-19 cases among service members of South Korea's Cheonghae anti-piracy unit has increased to 68.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Sunday that 61 more service members tested positive for the novel coronavirus on the naval destroyer Munmu the Great stationed in African waters.

The new infections raised the confirmed cases on the destroyer to 68 since the first case was detected on Thursday.

The figure is feared to rise further as the results of PCR tests on all 300 members of the unit have yet to come in.

A JCS official said on Sunday that the nation has received test results on 101 service members, with 68 of them tested positive and 33 others negative.

The number of hospitalized service members increased by three to 15.

The Cheonghae Unit was deployed to the Gulf of Aden off the Somalian coast in early February, before vaccines were introduced in Korea.

The South Korean military plans to dispatch a pair of aerial tankers on Sunday afternoon to bring all crew members back home, including the ones that are hospitalized.