The annual White House St Patrick's Shamrock Ceremony has been cancelled because of the coronavirus.

Confirming the cancellation, the White House said this evening's scheduled event would not be going ahead "out of an abundance of caution".

However, the key Oval Office meeting between US President Donald Trump and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will proceed as normal.

It comes as President Trump announced a travel ban, but Ireland does not appear to be affected by it.

The announcement was made during the annual Ireland Funds dinner attended by the Taoiseach in honour of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Mr Trump made the announcement live on American TV that travel from certain European countries had been halted to the US in an effort to curb the coronavirus outbreak.

A statement from Department of Homeland Security released on Wednesday night notes that only countries in the “Schengen area”, such as Latvia, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Portugal, France, Slovakia and others would be affected and would come into affect at midnight on Friday.

Ireland and the UK do not appear on the list.

Mr Trump made the announcement in an Oval Office address to the nation, blaming the European Union for not acting quickly enough to address the outbreak of the virus and saying US clusters were “seeded” by European travellers.

“We made a lifesaving move with early action on China,” Mr Trump said. “Now we must take the same action with Europe.”

Leo Varadkar was taken out of the event in Washington and was briefed by senior officials before leaving without speaking to the press, despite requests to do so.

In his speech at the dinner Leo Varadkar said that he supports the fight of Irish citizens in Northern Ireland rallying against imposed British citizenship.

The Taoiseach repeated his message about protecting the Good Friday Agreement during his first event in Washington.

He referenced Emma De Souza who was in the audience.

Ms De Souza, from Derry, has been locked in a legal battle with the UK government over what she calls a “failure to honour the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement” that people from the North could identify as British, Irish or both.

Ms DeSouza, who insists she is Irish and has never been British, claimed the Home Office's "hard-line" approach was an attempt to restrict access to EU entitlements in Northern Ireland post-Brexit.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Varadkar offered his support to Ms De Souza and her American husband Jake, whose application for a residence card sparked the legal fight.

“Emma de Souza has sought to have her right to be an Irish citizen upheld by British laws and I want to welcome her here this evening,” Mr Varadkar said.

Emma, we support you in your fight. It is a fight for the spirit, not just the letter, of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Taoiseach added that post-brexit, his major concern is peace in Northern Ireland.

“As you will be aware, the United Kingdom left the European Union at the end of January, however this is far from the end of the Brexit story,” he said.

“Thanks to an agreement reached with the EU, the Good Friday Agreement was fully protected, and we avoided the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland.

”The EU and the UK are now negotiating a future relationship. For our part, we want this to be as close and productive a partnership as possible.

“The Good Friday Agreement protects the citizenship and identity rights of all of those born in Northern Ireland – and includes the right of people to identify as British or Irish or both.”

Mr Varadkar will speak to the media at around noon Irish time today, before a day of official events to coincide with St Patrick’s day celebrations.