Vice Health Minister Kim Kang-lip told a press briefing that the tightened immigration procedures will be imposed on both South Korean and foreign nationals arriving from all countries beginning midnight Thursday local time.

Kim said the intensified measure was taken considering the recent rise in those arriving in South Korea who showed symptoms or were infected with the COVID-19.

South Korea already imposed the tighter immigration procedures on all European countries as well as China, Japan and Iran.

Under the tighter procedures, all entrants will be required to get fever checks, submit papers on health conditions and report available phone number and residence address to the health authorities at the airports.

They will also be required to download a self-diagnosis smartphone app to submit self-diagnosis results for 14 days and to be placed under intensive care if they show symptoms.

As of Sunday, 16 patients came from Europe out of 44 imported cases in total. It was followed by 14 from China and another 14 from Asian countries except China.

South Korea's combined infection cases topped 8,300 on Tuesday, but the daily confirmed cases hovered below 100 for the third consecutive day.