BTS Cancels 2020 Concerts As South Korea Coronavirus Cases Hit 2,337, 13 Deaths

With 2,337 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths as of Friday evening (Hong Kong time), South Korea is currently the second most heavily infected country in the world outside mainland China.

It's no wonder sensational South Korean boy band BTS, the first group since The Beatles to earn three number one albums in the U.S. in less than a year, has prudently canceled four shows in Seoul. BTS cited the COVID-19 outbreak as the reason for the cancellations.

BTS -- or Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translates into Bulletproof Boy Scouts -- is the first K-Pop group to top charts in the United States and Britain.

BTS was to have performed at the Olympic Stadium on April 11, 12, 18 and 19. Entertainment company Big Hit Entertainment that manages megastar group was expecting 200,000 fans to attend the cancelled shows.

Bad news for fans of Jin (Kim Seok-jin), Suga (Min Yoon-gi), J-Hope (Jung Ho-seok), RM (Kim Nam-joon), Jimin (Park Ji-min), V (Kim Tae-hyung) and Jungkook (Jeon Jung-kook).

"We regret to announce" the Seoul concerts have been cancelled, said Big Hit Entertainment in a statement. Big Hit said it was "impossible at this time to predict the scale of the outbreak" making the cancellation "unavoidable."

The cancellation was announced after BTS held a press conference in Seoul to promote their new album in an empty hall because of COVID-19. Their megagroups's newest album, "Map of the Soul: 7," released last week is the most pre-ordered South Korean album of all time. More than four million copies were sold before its release. BTS’ videos have millions of views on YouTube. Earlier this month, Spotify said BTS had hit more than 8 billion streams on its platform.

"While we hope that the situation will improve, we must take into consideration the health and safety of hundreds of thousands of guests as well as our artists and the dire impact a last-minute cancellation may have on guests from overseas," the announcement explained.

"We would like to sincerely apologize for issuing this notice of cancellation to all of our fans who had been eagerly looking forward to the BTS Map of the Soul Tour."