South Korea began enforcing tougher anti-coronavirus quarantine procedures for travelers from France, Germany, Spain, Britain and the Netherlands on Sunday as the virus is spreading quickly through Europe.

South Korea has been carrying out one-on-one fever checks and other special quarantine procedures for visitors from virus-hit countries, beginning with travelers from China on Feb. 4. Since then, the list has been expanded to include Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Italy and Iran.

On Sunday, the five European countries were newly added to the list, requiring both foreigners and South Koreans with a record of visits to the countries in the past 14 days to go through tougher coronavirus checks.

In addition to one-on-one temperature checks, the measures also include requiring those subject to the measures to report reachable phone numbers and to install a "self-diagnosis" smartphone application through which they can report suspicious symptoms.

According to data from the World Health Organization, the coronavirus has spread to 114 countries, infecting 134,000 people and killing 5,300 across the world. (Yonhap)