HONG KONG, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong issued red outbound travel alert on more places including parts of France and Germany and entire Italy on Tuesday in its latest effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The alert will cover the Bourgogne-Franche-Comte and Grand Est regions in France, the North Rhine-Westphalia region in Germany, Hokkaido in Japan as well as the La Rioja, Madrid and Pais Vasco regions in Spain, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said in a statement.

The alert currently in force on Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Veneto regions in Italy will be expanded to the entire country, according to the statement.

The government urged Hong Kong residents planning to travel to those places to adjust plans and avoid non-essential trips.

In addition to the alert, the Department of Health said inbound visitors of Hong Kong, who have been to the places mentioned above in the past 14 days, will be put in quarantine, effective Saturday.

The move came as more than 100 countries and regions reported confirmed cases of the COVID-19 infections. The HKSAR government had already issued travel alert on and restricted visitors from South Korea and Iran.