CHISINAU, MOLDOVA (REUTERS) - Moldova has banned all foreigners from entering by plane from any country affected by the coronavirus.

The ban took effect on Tuesday (March 10), three days after the eastern European state reported its first coronavirus case.

Announcing it late on Monday, Prime Minister Ion Chicu said the country could not completely ban flights, but that only Moldovan citizens would be permitted to board planes departing for Moldova from virus-infected countries.

It was not immediately clear how the ban would be implemented. Well over 100 countries and territories have reported cases of the new coronavirus, Covid-19.

Moldova's first case, a 48-year-old woman, was critically ill with acute respiratory failure, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

She had been hospitalised after arriving from Italy by plane last Saturday.