Palestinian officials announced on Thursday that the storied Church of the Nativity in the biblical city of Bethlehem was closing indefinitely over fears of the new coronavirus, weeks ahead of the Easter holiday that draws tens of thousands of visitors and worshippers.

The announcement by the Palestinian ministry highlighted the spread of the virus across West Asia, where worship at holy sites has been disrupted by the health scare.

Iran, the epicentre of the virus in the region, said it would set up checkpoints to limit travel between major cities and urged citizens to reduce their use of paper money to fight the spreading outbreak, which has killed at least 107 people across the Islamic Republic.

The Church of the Nativity was closed after suspicions that four Palestinians had caught the virus, prompting a flurry of measures that included banning all tourists from the West Bank for an unspecified amount of time and shutting down other places of worship in Bethlehem for two weeks.