COPENHAGEN (REUTERS) - Denmark will close all schools and universities and will start sending home all employees in the public sector with non-critical jobs in the coming days to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the prime minister said on Wednesday (March 11).

Denmark had 514 people diagnosed with the coronavirus as of Wednesday, rising ten-fold since Monday in what Health Minister Magnus Heunicke described as the "most dramatic increase seen in Europe".

All students at schools and universities will be sent home from Friday, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, adding that all day care facilities will be closed from Monday.

Frederiksen also urged all events with more than 100 people to be cancelled, tightening the number from 1,000 previously.