We are in crisis, says Daegu mayor
Residents urged to stay indoors as Covid-19 cases, linked to church, surge
SEOUL: South Korea confirmed its first death from the coronavirus hours after the mayor of its fourthlargest city urged residents to stay indoors after a spike of 53 new infections, most traced to a church attended by a 61-year-old woman, known as “Patient 31”, who tested positive.
Malls and cinemas in Daegu, a city of 2.5 million people, were empty and its usually bustling downtown streets deserted.
Daegu Mayor Kwon Young-jin asked residents to stay indoors as officials said at least 90 of more than 1,000 other people who attended the church were showing symptoms from what Korea’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention described as a “superspreading event”.
“We are in an unprecedented crisis,” Kwon told reporters, adding that all members of the church would be tested. “We’ve asked them to stay at home isolated from their families.”
The situation was “very grave”, South Korean Vice-Health Minister Kim Kang-lip said at a separate briefing.
South Korea now has 104 confirmed cases of the flu-like virus.
The cases previously reported in South Korea had mostly involved people who had travelled individually to China or come in contact with somebody who had.
Daegu authorities ordered the shutdown of all kindergartens, while schools considered postponing the beginning of the spring semester scheduled for early March.
The Defence Ministry banned troops stationed in Daegu from leaving their barracks and receiving guests.
The US military imposed similar restrictions on its army base in the city, which houses thousands of troops, family members and civilian employees, curbing travel and closing schools and child care centers.
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, two elderly former passengers from the coronavirus-wracked Diamond Princess died yesterday, Japanese authorities said.
The man and woman, both Japanese and in their 80s, were taken off the cruise ship last week and died in hospital, the first fatalalities among the more than 600 passengers and crew who have tested positive for the virus.
The man had a pre-existing condition of bronchial asthma and a history of angina treatment, the health ministry said in a statement, but the woman had no known preexisting conditions. The direct cause of her death was pneumonia. – Agencies