President Moon Jae-in on Monday called for stronger cooperation among local governments in the capital and surrounding regions, saying that the success of the country’s fight against COVID-19 hinged on the region.

“There remains the uncertainty that all the efforts and achievements could go back to the starting point if a large scale cluster transmission occurs, or community transmission expands quickly in the capital region,” Moon said at a meeting with heads of local governments in the region, and concerned government officials.

Those attending the meeting included Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung, whose areas have seen a number of cluster transmission cases. Although the cases have been smaller in scale compared to that of Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, the cases have fanned fears that the country’s COVID-19 outbreak could worsen.

Saying that as the disease spreads across the globe, concerns for additional inflow from overseas have grown, Moon said that Seoul and Gyeonggi Province is pivotal in Korea’s fight against the disease.

“It would not be an overstatement to say that whether the stabilizing trend (of the outbreak) can be consolidated depends on the capital region,” Moon said.

The number of new cases have fallen significantly in recent days, with the daily numbers remaining under 100 for the second consecutive day on Monday.

Saying that Seoul and surrounding regions are effectively a single region, Moon said that cooperation among local governments is critical.

At the meeting, Moon also hinted that more measures to prevent inflow of COVID-19 from overseas could be introduced, saying that such instances will be prevented to avoid additional burden on the country’s quarantine measures.

So far, Seoul has introduced more stringent screening on travelers entering the country from severely affected regions, including China and Europe.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)