Photo: People line up to buy masks at a supermarket in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 27, 2020./Xinhua

South Korea reported 256 new coronavirus cases on Friday, taking its total -- the highest in the world outside China -- to 2,022, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

More than 90 percent of the new cases were in Daegu -- the city at the epicentre of the outbreak in South Korea -- and the neighbouring North Gyeongsang province, it added, with no further deaths keeping the toll at 13.