Japanese prime minister orders the closure of all schools in the country for a month in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus

The Japanese prime minister has today ordered the closure of all schools in the country for a month in a bid to halt the spread of coronavirus, The Daily Mail reports.

Shinzo Abe said: 'The government considers the health and safety of children above anything else.

'We request all primary, junior high and high schools... across the nation to close temporarily from March 2 next week until their spring break.'

More than 200 people in Japan have so far contracted the virus and four people have died.

On the main northern island of Hokkaido, 13 new cases, including two children under the age of 10, were confirmed, the public broadcaster NHK reported.

Officials in Osaka had already ordered the closure of all schools in the city for a fortnight and 1,600 schools in Hokkaido were also set to close.

The move came after a woman in Osaka, which has a population of 2.6million, tested positive for the virus for a second time in one of the first cases of its kind.

The 40-year-old caught the virus while working on a tour bus in Osaka with visitors from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, in January.

She was discharged from hospital after testing negative on February 6 but fell ill again and was diagnosed with the virus for the second time on Wednesday.