Cleaning workers are seen standing next to a warning notice on preventing infection at a hospital in Incheon. (PHOTO / AFP)

SEOUL - South Korea reported on Thursday the first death in the country of a person infected with coronavirus and 22 new cases bringing the total to 104.

The exact cause of death is being investigated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said in a statement.

Most of the new cases confirmed are in the city of Daegu where a person who was infected with the virus had attended church services and visited a hospital before testing positive. The KCDC described the scenario as a “super-spreading event”.

The exact cause of death is being investigated, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a statement

The mayor of Daegu told residents to stay indoors on Thursday as a surge in confirmed cases linked to a local church 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 240 km southwest of the capital Seoul, as he warned of likely further cases.

KCDC reported 31 new cases of the virus earlier on Thursday, following 20 a day earlier.

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

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

South Korea’s vice health minister Kim Kang-lip said at a separate briefing in the administrative city of Sejong that the situation was “very grave."

South Korea’s vice health minister Kim Kang-lip said at a separate briefing in the administrative city of Sejong that the situation was “very grave.”

The cases previously reported in South Korea had mostly involved people who had traveled 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.

READ MORE: Coronavirus outbreak changes consumption patterns in S. Korea

CHURCH CLOSED

Local media footage showed the few people on Daegu’s usually bustling downtown streets wore face masks and kept far apart.

Topics such as “Daegu lockdown” and “Daegu church” were among the top searches on major South Korean portal Naver as debate heated up online about whether the city should be sealed off from the rest of the country. A KCDC official told Reuters the government was not yet considering that measure.