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Gyesan Catholic Cathedral in Daegu’s Jung (Central) District is closed for the time being amid the city’s novel coronavirus outbreak. It’s the first time in the church’s 109 years that it’s canceled mass. (photos by Kim Il-woo, Daegu correspondent)

“Oh dear. It looks like they aren’t having mass because of the coronavirus.”

A middle-aged man going for Sunday mass at Gyesan Catholic Cathedral in Daegu’s Jung (Central) District on the morning of Feb. 23 sighed as he was forced to turn back. The cathedral was locked up tight, with a sign on the door reading “No entrance.” Ordinarily, the Sunday mass would have been well under way, but the area around the cathedral was silent. On Feb. 19, the Archdiocese of Daegu under Archbishop Thaddeus Cho Hwan-kil issued an emergency order to all its cathedrals asking them not to hold masses until Mar. 5 at the earliest. It was the first time cathedrals in Daegu did not hold any masses in the 109 years since the archdiocese was established in 1911.

It was the weekend in Daegu, but with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, spreading rapidly in the city, church services and various gatherings have been called off. With foot traffic disappearing from the streets, an eerie silence reigned -- as if the city had ground to a halt.

Signs of alarm over members of the Shincheonji religious order were apparent all around. “Our church does not admit persons associated with Shincheonji or Shincheonji ‘harvesters’ [heretics],” read a sign on the similarly tightly locked entrance of the First Presbyterian Church of Daegu across the street from the cathedral.

E-World theme park has closed down until further notice.

A banner attributed to members of the church’s congregation hung with a quote from Psalms reading, “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.”

Wedding halls, normally bustling with people on the weekend, were also quiet. Previously closed after being visited by a confirmed COVID-19 patient, Queen Vell Hotel in the city’s Dong (East) District had experienced a marked drop in visitors since reopening for normal business on Feb. 20. A 26-year-old surnamed Park who was visiting for a friend’s wedding said, “I got a lot of requests to convey wedding gifts in people’ stead, so I had to attend the wedding, but there were very few guests.”

Wedding halls in downtown Daegu have been receiving numerous wedding postponement and cancellation requests since last week. A 30-year-old surnamed Choi explained, “My fiancé and I booked a hall for our wedding in Daegu next month, but we decided to put the wedding off until June at the earliest because we’re worried about the coronavirus.”

“A friend of mine who was planning to get married in Daegu this May is also thinking about what to do about the wedding now,” she added.

An empty street behind a major department store

Dongseong Road in Daegu’s Jung District, which sees foot traffic in the hundreds of thousands on an average day, has been no exception to the effects of COVID-19. Most of the stores along the road were closed for business on the afternoon of Feb. 23, with signs reading “Temporarily closed” posted at their entrances. Normally, the street would be bustling with people on the weekend; on this day, only around one or two people were passing by. On Jung District’s Jong and Namseong Roads behind Daegu’s Hyundai Department Store, it was harder to find stores that were open than ones that were closed. The district’s Seomun Market is ranked among South Korea’s top three traditional markets with over 4,000 stores; nearly all of them were closed on Feb. 23.

Kim Si-yeon, 52, runs the largest pub on Jong Road.

“The number of customers had already been falling because of coronavirus, but after the confirmed cases in Daegu, Jong Road has just turned into a ghost town -- no customers at all,” Kim said.

“The store has been closed for four days since last Thursday, and I’m debating whether to reopen it tomorrow. It’s worrying because I don’t know how long this situation is going to continue.”

Stores at the Hyundai Department Store and Dong-A Department Store also reopened on Feb. 23 after temporarily closing due to visits by confirmed COVID-19 patients -- but customers were staying away. At the center of the food court on Hyundai Department Store’s first basement level are enough chairs to seat around 90 people; as of lunchtime on Feb. 23, there were only two shoppers there. The situation was similar at the food court on Dong-A Department Store’s first basement level, where only around a dozen people were occupying the 150 or so seats. E-World, a theme park in Daegu’s Dalseo District, is closing its doors from Feb. 21 to 28. The city’s nine metropolitan libraries, including the Daegu Jungang branch, had been vacant for days, having shut down as of Feb. 20. Foot traffic was also sparse at the major points of entry into Daegu, including Dongdaegu and Daegu Stations and Daegu International Airport.

Seomun Market is empty on Feb. 23

Kim Ok-ja, 81, lives near Duryu Park in the Dalseong District.

“I decided to get some exercise today after getting frustrated over being cooped up at home all day yesterday,” she said.

“In the past, I would meet residents of a similar age at the park and we’d sit down together to

talk and enjoy ourselves. Now everyone’s avoiding each other because they’re worried about getting infected.”

“Just now, I got really startled and nervous when the man exercising in front of me coughed and spat,” Kim admitted -- armed to the proverbial teeth with a hat on her head and an additional handkerchief inside her face mask.

By Kim Il-woo, Daegu correspondent

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