Growing fears of the coronavirus outbreak are prompting many schools in the country to take action to prevent the infection from spreading further.

The Education Ministry said Monday that at present 336 kindergartens and schools nationwide have closed down temporarily or postponed the reopening of school for the spring semester.

The ministry did not provide a list of the schools, but they include those in areas with confirmed infections or in areas known to have been visited by infected people. Nine of them are in Seoul, 189 in Bucheon, Goyang and Suwon in Gyeonggi Province and 138 in Gunsan, South Jeolla Province.

The Gyeonggi Province education office ordered all kindergartens in Bucheon and Suwon to close until Friday. The office recommended that all 157 kindergartens in Goyang close, but only nine complied.

More schools across the country are expected to follow suit if the outbreak shows no signs of a slowdown in the near future.