Update at 1600 KST: this article has been updated to include further details of the travel restrictions

North Korean authorities will now require all foreigners visiting the country from China to stay in quarantine for a month, the Russian embassy in Pyongyang said Tuesday, as the country moves to prevent an outbreak of a new strand of the deadly coronavirus.

In a post on its official Facebook account, the Russian embassy reported that the North Korean foreign ministry had informed them that “all foreigners” — including diplomats and NGO staff — who have recently visited China will be “isolated… under medical supervision for one month.”

Foreigners arriving via air, it continued, will be placed under quarantine at Pyongsong’s Jangsusan hotel, some 30 kilometers north of the DPRK capital.

Those crossing the Sino-DPRK border via train will be held at the Amrokgang Hotel in Sinuiju, while those entering through other points of entry will be housed as “international-class hotels closest to the point of entry.”

“These measures are aimed at protecting the life and safety of our employees accredited to the DPRK diplomatic missions and international organizations, as well as the prevention of a pandemic of a new type of coronavirus,” the Russian embassy said, encouraging all foreign visitors to “cooperate actively” with the new rules.

News of the new rules was first shared by North Korean state media earlier on Tuesday, with ruling party daily the Rodong Sinmun having reported that authorities were setting up quarantine zones at the country’s borders, ports, and airports.

The move sees Pyongyang step-up precautionary measures intended to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus, now reported to have infected close to 4,500 and killed over a hundred people in China.

The virus may also have reached South Korea, where authorities have scrambled to prevent an outbreak and 15 suspected cases are reportedly under investigation as of Tuesday.

North Korea last week announced that it would not permit any international tourism while fears of an outbreak persisted, with authorities also issuing orders that resident foreigners were temporarily “completely forbidden” from traveling to China.

The new rules echo steps taken by Pyongyang during an outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa in 2014, when visiting NGO workers and diplomats were subject to a 21-day quarantine period before being allowed to enter the country.

“We did not have any contact for three weeks,” Thomas Fisler, a former Resident Representative to North Korea who was quarantined twice under those measures, told NK News last week. “The restrictions were quite dramatic.”

It’s not immediately clear whether the quarantine measures announced this week will also apply to North Koreans visiting from China, or whether the state has made different arrangements for its nationals.

The Seoul-based Daily NK, however, reported Tuesday that North Koreans entering the country at the Sino-DPRK border at Sinuiju were now being subject to strict inspections for signs of the virus.

“Supposedly, those quarantined in Sinuiju are forced to stay there for two weeks as a precautionary measure,” an unnamed in-country source told the outlet, which did not specify if these measures applied to all DPRK citizens or just those showing signs of infection.

Flights to and from the North from China are also being limited, with the Russian embassy later on Tuesday adding that Air China’s Pyongyang office had informed them that “all flights” planned for the month of February had been canceled.

North Korean national airline Air Koryo is also expected to either severely limit or cancel upcoming flights to China, the embassy said, though outbound flights to Beijing scheduled to take place on February 1 and 4 are set to go ahead.

“Further flights… remain in question and will, according to the company’s representatives, depend ‘on the development of the situation with the spread of the coronavirus,'” a statement from the embassy reads.

Air Koryo’s regular twice-weekly flights to and from the Russian city of Vladivostok are not affected by the new rules.

Edited by James Fretwell