Ireland has cancelled all St. Patrick's Day parades across the country in an attempt to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar announced the cancellation and said "further advice about mass public gatherings will be issued in the next few days."
The annual March 17 parade in Dublin is one of Ireland's biggest tourist events, and typically draws half a million people onto the city's streets. Tens of thousands more flock to parades in Ireland's second-largest city, Cork, and smaller communities.
Ireland has 21 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
