Yoido Full Gospel Church in Yeouido, Seoul, the biggest church in Korea, will stop its Sunday services starting this weekend out of concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. 

A megachurch with around 560,000 followers, Yoido Full Gospel Church said Friday that it had made the decision to halt its Sunday services out of concern for the safety of its followers and the wider public.

On Thursday, the church said it would not halt its Sunday worship services, but would downscale the seven-session program to five sessions while controlling the number of worshipers. The decision was overturned just a day later.

The megachurch stopped holding weekday public events and gatherings of its worshipers starting this week.

Yoido Full Gospel Church also announced it would donate 1 billion won ($823,000) to support medical services in Daegu and its neighboring North Gyeongsang Province, where the number of infections has recently shot up.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)