South Korea reports first coronavirus death as Daegu church cluster cases soar

The mayor of Daegu has asked its 2.5 million people to stay home as number of confirmed cases in the country hits 104

Dozens of cases are connected to a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, now regarded by officials as a ‘super-spreading event’

Reading Time:2 minutes

Workers sanitise a street in front of a branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:43am, 20 Feb 2020Updated: 9:48pm, 28 Feb 2020

South Korea on Thursday confirmed the country’s first casualty from the new coronavirus as the country’s overall number of infections ballooned to 104.

The exact cause of death is being investigated, Korea’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement.

At least 70 patients are from Daegu or nearby and the majority of those cases have been traced to an infected person who attended a local church, a scenario that KCDC described as a “super-spreading event”.

The mayor of Daegu told residents to stay indoors as a spike in confirmed cases linked to the Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony raised the prospect of wider transmission.

Malls, restaurants and streets in Daegu, the country’s fourth-largest city with a population of 2.5 million, were largely empty in scenes that local social media users likened to a disaster movie.

“We are in an unprecedented crisis,” Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin said at a briefing in the city, about 240km southwest of the capital Seoul, as he warned of likely further cases.

Kwon cautioned that at least 90 more of the around 1,000 other people who attended services at the church were also showing symptoms.

“We plan to test all believers of that church and have asked them to stay at home isolated from their families,” Kwon said.