Coronavirus confirmed as pandemic by World Health Organization

The coronavirus outbreak has been labelled a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the number of cases outside China had increased 13-fold in two weeks. He said he was "deeply concerned" by "alarming levels of inaction".

A pandemic is a disease that is spreading in multiple countries around the world at the same time.

Hours later Italy said all shops except food shops and pharmacies would close.

Announcing the toughest lockdown seen yet in Europe, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said bars, hairdressers, restaurants and cafes that could not guarantee a metre's distance between customers and non-essential company departments would also close.

The impact of the tightened restrictions - in force from Thursday until 25 March - on the rate of new coronavirus cases would take a couple of weeks to be seen, Mr Conte said.

What did the WHO say?

Dr Tedros said that calling the outbreak a pandemic did not mean the WHO was changing its advice about what countries should do.

He called on governments to change the course of the outbreak by taking "urgent and aggressive action".

"Several countries have demonstrated that this virus can be suppressed and controlled," he said.

"The challenge for many countries who are now dealing with large clusters or community transmission is not whether they can do the same - it's whether they will."