"The Louvre is a confined space which welcomes more than 5000 people a day," he said. "There is real concern on the part of staff."

A statement on the museum's website said it "cannot open today" and promised to refund tickets.

In other developments overnight Australian time:

• Australia recorded its first coronavirus-related death. The victim, 78-year-old Western Australian tourism giant James Kwan, was on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was hit by a major outbreak in Japan
• A senior World Health Organisation official endorsed 'elbow bumps' and 'footshakes' as a safe alternative to shaking hands
• US President Donald Trump said American officials would boost airport screening for passengers from high-risk countries
• The number of cases in the United Kingdom rose by 12 to reach 35 as the British government prepared to release a new plan to tackle the outbreak

Of the 1577 people who have the virus in Italy, nearly 800 are in home isolation, 639 in a stable condition in hospital and a further 140 in intensive care.

Nearly 1000 of the cases are in the Lombardy region to Italy's north where authorities last week placed a quarantine cordon around nearly a dozen small towns.

American Airlines has said it will immediately cease all flights to Milan, the capital of Lombardy, until the end of April, citing a lack of demand.

The Australian government has upgraded its travel advice for Italy to urge citizens to reconsider their need to travel to towns isolated by local authorities.

The towns are Codogno, Castiglione d’Adda, Casalpusterlengo, Fombio, Maleo, Somaglia, Bertonico, Terranova dei Passerini, Castelgerundo, San Fiorano and Vo’ Euganeo. The updated advice says travellers should "exercise a high degree of caution across all of Italy".

The Italian government has announced a €3.6 billion ($6.08 billion) stimulus package for businesses affected by a dramatic drop in tourism. Milan, Venice and Rome have been badly affected amid reports that some hotels have experienced an 80 per cent reduction in bookings for March.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will chair a meeting of the government's COBRA emergency committee on Monday as the number of cases in the United Kingdom rises to from 23 to 35.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he would not take any potential responses "off the table", including sealing off affected cities as has been done in China.

"There’s clearly a huge economic and social downside to that but we don’t take anything off the table at this stage because you’ve got to make sure that you have all of the tools available if that is what’s necessary," Hancock said.

"I want to minimise the social and economic disruption, and at this stage we still have the hope – although the numbers elsewhere are rising fast – we still have the hope that we might be able to avoid this outcome."

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He also said a research paper that found 500,000 UK citizens could die from a COVID-19 pandemic was a "reasonable worst-case scenario".

The British government is working on a new set of emergency powers in case the virus spreads across the country and will release the proposals early this week.