Photo: chinanews

The COVID-19 pandemic has led Disney to temporarily shut down its Orlando Disney World, Disneyland Paris and Disney Cruise.

According to USA Today, the announcement came on Thursday (local time) through a statement issued a few hours after the closure of Disneyland California was declared.

"In an abundance of caution and in the best interest of our guests and employees, we are proceeding with the closure of our theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Paris Resort," the Disney statement read.

The lockdown will begin from March 15 till the end of the month.

The employees at the affected locations will continue to receive their payments. The hotels and stores at Disney Paris and Walt Disney World will continue to operate until notified further, reported USA Today.

The departures of Disney Cruise Line will be suspended starting from March 14. Also, the Universal Orlando resort will remain shut from March 15 to March 31.

Earlier, Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks situated in Anaheim California announced its closure in a press release.

According to CNN Business, a Disneyland spokesperson told in a statement that "while there have been no reported cases of COVID-19 at Disneyland Resort, after carefully reviewing the guidelines of the Governor of California's executive order and in the best interest of our guests and employees, we are proceeding with the closure of Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure, beginning the morning of March 14 through the end of the month".

The Disneyland Resort hotels will, however, remain open till March 16 in order to "to give guests the ability to make necessary travel arrangements," the release announced.

"We will monitor the ongoing situation and follow the advice and guidance of federal and state officials and health agencies. Disney will continue to pay cast members during this time," the statement further added.

The announcement also mentioned that the organisation will cooperate with the guests who are going to cancel or reschedule their visits and refunds will be handed out for the period while the theme parks are shut, reported CNN Business.

Disney had already closed their parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong at the beginning of this year as a precautionary measure against the coronavirus outbreak.