[Photo by Yonhap]

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South Korea enforced an unprecedented weeklong suspension of schools after raising the infectious virus alert to the highest level as the national infection tally surged to over 600 in a few days.

The government, which has been drawing up a new set of actions and funding plans, is also considering a supplementary budget.

The opening date of kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools has been pushed back to Mar. 9, a week later than scheduled, the government announced on Sunday.

This is the first nationwide postponement of the school semester. The education ministry said the delay could be extended depending on the situation.

The move comes after President Moon Jae-in raised the country’s epidemic control level to the highest “red” on the four-tier system that was enforced after the 2009 swine flu outbreak.

In just days, the number of COVID-19 infections in the country spiraled to 608, with six reported deaths. More than half of the confirmed cases are linked to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a secretive religious cult, with a majority of the infections coming from the southeastern city of Daegu and the North Gyeongsang Province.

A number of governments have begun enforcing travel bans on Korea.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks during a meeting on coronavirus response in Seoul on Feb. 23, 2020. [Photo by Lee Chung-woo]

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The ruling Democratic Party (DP) has recommended extra budgeting. If passed, it would make it Korea’s fourth supplementary budget in the first quarter. The only other times the extra budget bill was passed in the first quarter were in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and 1999 and the global financial crisis in 2009.

The finance ministry has so far ruled out a supplementary budget, but it may be forced to reconsider given the snowballing outbreak. The DP called for an approval of the bill before the Mar. 17 deadline, citing that the extra budget during the MERS epidemic in 2015 was also passed in 18 days.

The supplementary budget drawn for the SARS epidemic in 2003 was 7.5 trillion won ($6.17 billion) and 11.6 trillion won for MERS. The amount is expected to be bigger for the latest outbreak as economy is already suffering from weak consumption and sagging exports.

Institutions have downgraded growth estimates for the economy to below 2.0 percent and even 1.0 percent.

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