Daegu's usually bustling downtown streets were nearly deserted on Friday as people wearing face masks lined up at clinics seeking testing for the new coronavirus, as South Korea's government declared a health emergency in the city.

Schools were shuttered, churches told worshipers to stay away and some mass gatherings were banned as cases of the new virus swelled.

Daegu, a southeastern city of 2.5 million that is the country’s fourth-largest, emerged as the focus of government efforts to contain the disease known as COVID-19.

The first case in Daegu was reported on Tuesday. By Friday, the area had 153.

The biggest cluster of cases has been linked to the Daegu branch of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, where two recent services were attended by a COVID-19 carrier.

The church said in a statement that health officials were disinfecting that branch, which has about 8,000 followers.

Shincheonji, which claims to have 200,000 followers in South Korea, said it had closed all of its 74 sanctuaries around the nation and instead told followers to watch its services on YouTube.

Shincheonji, which translates as “New heaven and new Earth,” is a controversial new religious movement established in 1984 by Lee Man-hee.

The church describes him as an angel of Jesus sent to testify about the fulfilled prophecies of the Book of Revelation.

President Moon Jae-in ordered swifter action to trace down those who recently visited the Daegu church and a hospital in another southeastern city of Cheongdo, where many virus cases were also reported in the past three days.

The country said a total of 204 people were infected with the virus, quadruple the number it had two days earlier, as a crisis centered in China has begun strongly reverberating elsewhere.

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