Schools, colleges and childcare facilities in Ireland have been closed until the end of this month to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the country “had not faced a pandemic like this in living memory” as he urged citizens to work from home if they can and limit social interaction.

The announcement came a day after Ireland confirmed its first death from Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The victim was an elderly woman who had been admitted to hospital in Dublin several days ago and had an underlying respiratory condition.

Speaking in Washington DC, where he is meeting US President Donald Trump ahead of St Patrick’s Day, Mr Varadkar said closures would affect schools, nurseries, colleges and cultural institutions such as museums, and would remain in place until March 29.

“Where possible teaching will be done online or remotely,” said Mr Varadkar.

Ireland’s intervention came at a time when the country had recorded only 43 confirmed cases of the virus, compared with hundreds in the UK.

Nationwide school and university closures are also being rolled out in Denmark and the Czech Republic and are already in place in Italy, Japan, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Mr Varadkar said Ireland’s way of life should change until the pandemic is brought under control.

He said: “Our advice is that all indoor mass gatherings of more than 100 people and outdoor mass gatherings of more than 500 people should be cancelled.

“You should continue to go to work if you can but where possible you should work from home, and in order to reduce unnecessary fact-to-face interaction in the workplace, break times and working times should be staggered and meetings done remotely or by phone.

“Public transport will continue to operate, the shops will remain open, and we have plans to ensure that supply chains will not be interrupted.

“Restaurants, cafes and other businesses can stay open but should look at ways they can implement public health advice on social distancing, and as a general rule outside of work people should seek to reduce social interactions as much as possible.”

It came as New York cancelled its St Patrick’s Day parade for the first time in more than 250 years.

It was scheduled to take place on March 17. Mr Varadkar said he was acting on fresh advice from the country’s National Public Health Emergency Team.

“We have not witnessed a pandemic of this nature in living memory and this is uncharted territory for us,” he said.

“We said we would take the right actions at the right time and we have to move now to have the greatest impact.”

Irish health minister Simon Harris said the country had officially moved to the “delay” phase, which aims to reduce the peak impact of the virus and slow its spread.

Meanwhile, Italy has stepped up its nationwide quarantine by closing all shops except pharmacies and food outlets until at least March 25.

It had already closed schools, universities gyms, museums, nightclubs and ski resorts, but the restrictions were extended to bars, restaurants, hairdressers and non-essential company departments.

Some criminal trials have also been halted.

There were also reports that authorities in Italy could charge anyone with a cough, fever or other signs of possible coronavirus who refuses to self-isolate with attempted murder.

Italy has been worst hit by the virus in Europe, with more than 15,000 cases and more than 1,000 deaths to date.

Doctors have described running out of hospital beds and intensive care space as Italy’s health system was overwhelmed by an explosion in cases last month.

One former NHS doctor now working in Italy warned that the situation there is like “being in a war”.

Professor Abu Hilal, who used to work at an NHS hospital in Southampton and is now chief of the department of surgery at Poliambulanza Institute Hospital Foundation, Brescia, tweeted that Covid19 “is serious”.

He added: “People are dying, not only elderly.

“Beds are full. Governments must shut down everything, prepare beds, ventilators , antivirals, doctors and nurses. People should stay at home.”

It is unclear exactly why Italy has been so badly affected compared with other European nations.

There are suggestions that aggressive testing for coronavirus in the wealthy Lombardy region has resulted in a much higher detection rate than other countries, as well as Italy’s unusually elderly population – due to long life expectancy – leaving it more exposed.

There has also been criticism that initial cases were not isolated quickly enough, allowing the disease to spread unchecked and exacerbate the outbreak.

The latest crackdown in Italy came as the US president announced a 30-day ban on flights from 26 European countries within the Schengen borderfree travel area.

It does not affect the UK or Ireland.

The announcement contributed to huge falls in stock markets around the world, with the FTSE 100 Index suffering its biggest one-day fall since 1987 after plummeting 10.9 per cent.

The Dow Jones led falls among US indexes, dropping more than 9%, while in Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index closed 4.4% down.

Mr Trump called the ban the “most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history”.

He said one of the reasons the UK was not included in the travel ban was because of its borders.

“It has got very strong borders and they are doing a very good job,” he said.

“They don’t have very much infection at this point and hopefully they will keep it that way.”

Mr Trump also claimed the US had “a tremendous testing set-up”, after a top health official said it was failing.

Dr Anthony Fauci, from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the system “is not really geared to what we need right now”.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US has tested at least 11,079 people for the virus – although some tests in private hospitals and labs have not been reported.

South Korea is testing nearly 20,000 people every day, while in the UK, more than 29,700 people have been tested. In Scotland, 2,892 tests have been carried out.