The Chinese Embassy in South Korea on Thursday provided 25,000 masks to the southeastern city of Daegu amid a spike in the number of the new coronavirus cases in the city.

The embassy said the provision was an expression of gratitude to South Koreans over the friendship and support they showed to China, which is trying to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak.

"The embassy will continue to secure various supplies for quarantine efforts and actively support and stand by South Korea for it to overcome the infectious disease," an embassy official said.

Daegu, a metropolis of some 2.4 million people about 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, has become the biggest cluster of mass infection since the nation's 31st patient was confirmed to be infected with the virus early last week.

Among 1,766 people infected with the virus in South Korea as of 4 p.m., 1,132, or 64 percent, are from the city.

(Yonhap)