The Chinese Embassy in South Korea said Thursday it has provided 25,000 masks to the Seoul city government amid concerns over possible mass transmission of the new coronavirus in the metropolitan area.

In a letter to Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, China's top envoy to Seoul, Xing Haiming, said the masks are in return for the help Seoul provided when the COVID-19 situation was at its worst in China, according to the embassy.

Earlier, the Seoul city government provided 600 million won ($497,100) worth of quarantine materials to 12 Chinese cities including Beijing.

"If China and South Korea ... protect each other, look after each other and help each other, I believe that we can definitely win this battle against COVID-19 and meet the splendid spring," the envoy said.

As of Thursday morning, South Korea had reported a total of 7,869 infections nationwide.

In the largest cluster of infections in Seoul so far, at least 100 people linked to a call center in Guro Ward had tested positive for the virus as of Tuesday, highlighting concerns about the virus' spread in confined spaces and within the metropolitan area. (Yonhap)