South Korean authorities will track mobile phones of hundreds of people under quarantine to prevent the spread of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Reuters is reporting.

The government, criticized over its lack of transparency in handling the outbreak, bowed to public pressure and identified 24 health facilities where infections took place or MERS patients visited. It also reported 14 confirmed new cases of MERS.

South Korea’s outbreak of the MERS virus, first reported on May 20, has prompted fear and the closure last week of more than 1,000 schools.“Please understand this is an unavoidable measure for the sake of our neighbors and families,” Deputy Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan told a news briefing in the central city of Sejong, where he unveiled the plan to track the mobile phones of people under quarantine to ensure they stay at home.

As of Sunday, over 2,300 people in South Korea were under quarantine, some in health care facilities but most at home, including an entire village of about 105 people in the southwest.

South Korea’s outbreak of the MERS virus, first reported on May 20, has prompted fear and the closure last week of more than 1,000 schools, with thousands of tourists cancelling plans to visit the country.

First identified in humans in 2012, MERS is caused by a corona virus from the same family as the one that triggered Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). But MERS has a much higher death rate at 38 percent, according to World Health Organization figures.

Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University, said that measures being taken such by the authorities should stop the outbreak.

“There will be a time lag, since the disease takes some days to develop, but if the proper measures are being taken, there should soon be a large falloff in the number of new cases,” he said.