The government is not recommending the cancellation of St Patrick's Day parades at this stage.
The announcement was made this afternoon by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who says it is something which will be kept under review right up to March 17th.
He's also said banning flights coming from Italy to try to stop the spread of the virus would not be effective.
The main St Patrick's Day parade is due to be held in Dublin City on March 17th.
Susan Kirby, CEO of St. Patrick’s Festival, has said "Recent years have seen more than 500,000 attend the Festival Parade alone, and the economic benefit is in excess of €73 million".
