Japan is planning to ban the entry of foreigners who have visited the city of Daegu and the neighboring region of Cheongdo in North Gyeongsang Province in South Korea, the hub of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country, government sources said Wednesday.

The entry ban comes on the heels of the Japanese foreign ministry a day earlier raising its travel alert and asking Japanese people to avoid all but essential trips to the regions in South Korea.

South Korea on Wednesday reported 169 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number to 1,146, according to Yonhap News Agency. 12 people in South Korea have died of the disease, the country's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

About 80 percent of the confirmed cases came from two clusters of infections – a branch of a religious sect in Daegu and a hospital in Cheongdo, according to Yonhap.

Read more: South Koreans face travel restrictions as new coronavirus cases spike

(With input from Xinhua)