South Korea reports 376 new coronavirus cases, total exceeds 3,500

South Korea has reported 376 additional cases of the coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections here to 3,526.

The country's COVID-19 death toll remained unchanged at 17, Yonhap news agency reported.

Of the 376 new cases, 333 have been reported in Daegu, located 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, while the other 26 cases were reported in neighboring North Gyeongsang Province, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Other major provinces and cities have also reported some infections, with Seoul reporting an additional five cases. South Korea's second-largest city, Busan, added one more case.

Since raising the virus alert level to "red," the highest level, last Sunday, health authorities have been focusing on halting the spread of the virus in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province as they account for more than 87 percent of the country's total virus infections.

The number of confirmed cases in South Korea is expected to jump in the coming days as health authorities have begun testing more than 210,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus at the center of the rapid spread in other provinces.

Health authorities suspect that more than half of the country's virus cases are linked with Shincheonji, a home-grown religious sect.

As of Sunday morning, South Korea is carrying out tests on 32,422 people nationwide, while 61,037 people have tested negative in total.

South Korea confirmed its first virus case on January 20 when a Chinese woman from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, tested positive for the virus.