The United Arab Emirates will shut schools for four weeks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

All public and private schools and higher education institutions will be closed as of March 8.

Spring break, which was due to begin on March 29, will instead begin on March 8 and last two weeks. Distance learning will be introduced during the remaining two weeks, with pupils learning from home.

Government schools will run a home-teaching program called Learn from Afar from March 22 to April 5. It was due to be tested on Wednesday and Thursday, the National reported.

Private schools were urged to set up their own distance-learning programs or expand existing e-learning tools.

A "sterilization program" for all educational facilities will be carried out in all schools, buses and universities, the Ministry said.

Six new cases of coronavirus have been recently confirmed, bringing the country's total cases to 27.