President Donald Trump has taken a coronavirus test but said on Saturday that his temperature was “totally normal”, and his administration extended a travel ban to Britain and Ireland to try to contain a pandemic that has shut down much of the daily routine of American life.

After White House officials took the unprecedented step of checking the temperatures of journalists entering the briefing room, Trump told reporters he took a test for the virus on Friday night and that he expects the results in “a day or two days”. He met a Brazilian delegation last week, at least one member of which has since tested positive.

The top US infectious diseases expert, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci, said the country has recorded 2,226 case of the new coronavirus, but has not yet reached the peak of the outbreak.

“This will get worse before it gets better,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams said at the briefing.

Vice-President Mike Pence, who is running the administration’s response to the outbreak, told reporters that visits to nursing homes were being suspended to protect the most vulnerable.

Earlier on Saturday, officials in New York said an

82-year-old woman became the state’s first coronavirus fatality.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the woman, who had previously suffered from emphysema, was hospitalised in Manhattan on March 3. He told reporters that the state’s tally of cases had risen to 524. Nationwide, 50 people have died.

On Friday, Trump declared a national emergency in a move that he said would bring “the full power of the federal government” to bear on the escalating health crisis by freeing up some $50 billion in aid.