Any passenger with a body temperature of higher than 37.5 C will be banned from boarding flights to South Korea starting next week, South Korea's health authorities said Friday, as they seek to contain new coronavirus cases involving people coming from overseas.

Beginning Monday, people who are flying to South Korea will be required to get fever checks by airlines at airports, they said.

For passengers who are banned from boarding flights to South Korea, each airline will return their fares to them, health authorities said.

South Korea has enforced a two-week quarantine period and virus tests for all long-term arrivals from Europe, regardless of symptoms, in an effort to contain imported virus cases.

Starting Friday, passengers from the United States for long-term stays are required to self-isolate at home for two weeks.

The number of imported virus cases rose by 13 to 144 as of Thursday, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

The KCDC said it detected 91 new cases Thursday, raising the nation's total infections to 9,332. (Yonhap)