BTS cancels Seoul concerts amid rising COVID-19 cases in South Korea

K-pop group BTS has cancelled its concerts in Seoul amid the rising cases of COVID-19 in South Korea.

The boy band's agency, Big Hit Entertainment, announced that the "BTS Map of the Soul Tour - Seoul" set on April will no longer be pushing through due to the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus situation.

"The current global coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has made it impossible at this time to predict the scale of the outbreak during the dates of the concert in April, alongside increasing uncertainty about the cross-border movement of concert staff and equipment," the statement posted on the BTS Facebook page read.

It added that it had considered the health and safety of the guests and its artists.

"Please understand that this decision was made after extensive and careful consideration in order to cooperate with the government’s measures on restricting public events as well as municipal advisories on the use of cultural and sports facilities," it said.

On Friday, South Korea reported 256 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infected in the country to 2,022. The death toll from the virus stood at 13, unchanged from the day earlier.

South Korea is the most affected country after China, where the disease originated from.

—JCB, GMA News