Leo Varadkar and Arlene Foster met on Saturday to discuss a cross-border approach to combatting coronavirus.

With mass gatherings including sporting events and concerts to be banned across the UK from next weekend, pressure was growing on Northern Irish leaders to close schools in line with the move south of the border.

The caretaker taoiseach and first minister met in Armagh as part of a wider delegation involving Ireland’s chief medical officer, who has been acting on Irish as well as EU modelling.

The meeting came as the leader of the Catholic church in Ireland called on Northern Irish leaders to close all schools. He told Stormont’s education minister, the Democratic Unionist party’s Peter Weir, that “we need to fight this virus together”.

Also at the meeting were Ireland’s deputy prime minister Simon Coveney, the health minister, Simon Harris, and his Stormont counterpart, Robin Swann.

Q&A How can I protect myself and others from the coronavirus outbreak? Show The World Health Organization is recommending that people take simple precautions to reduce exposure to and transmission of the coronavirus, for which there is no specific cure or vaccine. The UN agency advises people to: Frequently wash their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or warm water and soap

Cover their mouth and nose with a flexed elbow or tissue when sneezing or coughing

Avoid close contact with anyone who has a fever or cough

Seek early medical help if they have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and share their travel history with healthcare providers

Advice about face masks varies. Wearing them while out and about may offer some protection against both spreading and catching the virus via coughs and sneezes, but it is not a cast-iron guarantee of protection Many countries are now enforcing or recommending curfews or lockdowns. Check with your local authorities for up-to-date information about the situation in your area. In the UK, NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days. If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home.

They met under the framework of the north-south ministerial council set up under the Good Friday agreement to promote consultation and cooperation across the island.

The Stormont assembly was holding firm on the UK approach on Thursday when Varadkar announced, in an address to the nation from Washington, that schools would close.

Splits emerged, however, between Foster and her deputy first minister, Michelle O’Neill, on Friday.

O’Neill, who is also Sinn Féin’s Northern Ireland leader, called for schools to be closed. “Now is the time for action” and Northern Ireland should “err on the side of caution,” she said.

Arriving in Armagh for the meeting Varadkar said the issue was complicated because of the two jurisdictions, but that the virus did not respect borders. O’Neill said the meeting was about people, not politics.

Nine new coronavirus cases were recorded in Northern Ireland on Friday, bringing the total to 29. Three were community transmissions, the first recorded.

Twenty new cases were reported in the republic, the second highest daily jump bringing the total to 90.

Harris said on Friday that he had spoken to the UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, before the announcement about the schools closure.

More details of Ireland’s contingency planning emerged on Saturday. It is looking for 10,000 beds for its worst-case scenario with the possibility of using hotel rooms, student accommodation halls and military sites.

Dublin is also looking at releasing hundreds of prisoners as the Irish Prison Service warned of the significant challenges it faced containing the spread of the virus.