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The mayor of the South Korean city of Daegu urged the city's 2.5 million people to stay home after a concentration of coronavirus cases broke out at a church where a woman continued attending services after developing symptoms, The Guardian reports. The number of cases linked to the churchgoer reached 49, nearly half of South Korea's new cases.

"We are in an unprecedented crisis," said the mayor, Kwon Young-jin. Schools in the city reportedly are considering delaying the start of the spring term, currently scheduled for early March. South Korea on Thursday reported its first death from the virus, the ninth outside of mainland China. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the man died in a hospital and posthumously tested positive for coronavirus.