South Korea Has Second Most Coronavirus Cases After China, President Says Country Faces 'Grave Turning Point'

South Korea now has the second most coronavirus cases in the world behind China, and the country's president Moon Jae-in has recently stated the Asian nation faces a "grave turning point."

"The COVID-19 incident faces a grave turning points," Moon said after a recent meeting with ministers and experts. "The next few days will be crucial. The government will raise the alert level to the highest level of 'grave' according to experts' recommendations and drastically strengthen our response system."

According to South Korea's Center for Disease Control (KCDC), there are currently over 700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 7 deaths. The last time South Korea has raised its threat level to this degree was in 2009, due to a novel influenza outbreak that caused over 260 deaths.

While South Korea faces this dangerous situation, raising the country's threat level allows the government to implement drastic restrictions. According to Vox, this threat level allows South Korean officials to limit public transportation and flights to and from the country, as well as locking down cities and closing schools. None of these actions have yet to be implemented, but Jae-in has made it clear that he will do whatever it takes to slow the spread of the virus.

Following the increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Korea, health officials were able to trace them back to a Christian sect in Daegu, called the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. According to the KCDC, 95 out of the 169 new cases confirmed on Sunday, were linked to this church, while the total number of cases linked is 329.

The church has responded to the KCDC report with a YouTube video, saying that it has told its membership of over 150,000 people to limit contact with other people while also noting that they have given officials nearly 9,000 additional names of those affiliated with the church.

Both Italy and Iran have seen an uptick in cases of COVID-19 in recent days. Iran currently has 43 confirmed cases and 8 total deaths, which is the highest number of deaths outside of China.

Italy has 132 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with a majority of them stemming from the Lombardy region. Eighty-nine of the 132 cases have been linked to this area, making Italy the biggest area of COVID-19 outbreaks outside of Asia.

Overall, the deadly virus has infected more than 78,800 people worldwide, with 77,042 cases confirmed in China, where the virus was first identified in Wuhan, according to a February 23 report by The World Health Organization. According to WHO, the virus has caused 2,445 deaths in China and 17 outside of China.