It comes as hospitality venues in countries across Europe have been forced to shut their doors due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

In Canberra, venues have implemented a range of measures such as the separation of tables and a putting a limit on capacity.

At Bar Rochford, in the city, owner Nick Smith said the venue had come up with a series of plans.

It had limited bookings to groups fewer than five people and kept tables at least 60 centimetres apart.

The venue has a capacity for about 100 people but they have scaled it back to 70 people and Mr Smith said they considered dropping this to 50 people.

Hand sanitisers had been placed across the bar and only eftpos payments were being accepted.

"We have back up hand sanitiser and I guess just making sure all our clients are onto it, we won't take any risks," he said.

Teddy Picker's co-owner Matt Rollings said the Campbell cafe had applied measures after they had seen what had happened overseas.

"Initially we have been looking at ways we could implement extra protective measures for customers and ourselves and taking a lead from overseas restaurants," he said.

"They are in a situation where we are going to be in a few weeks."

The cafe has taken away some tables and also made disinfectant wipes accessible to all customers.

Mr Rollings said they had also pushed the use of the cafe's app where people could pre-order food and coffee and pick it up if they did not feel comfortable being in the venue for an extended period of time.

Irish pubs in Canberra were forced to be extra careful on Tuesday as St Patrick's Day was celebrated.

While pubs in Ireland were forced closed, Canberra's Irish population could grab a pint of Guinness from their local watering hole.

But it was not business as usual, with publicans taking extra measures to ensure customer safety.

King O'Malley's managing director Peter Barclay said the club had followed guidelines given to them by the government.

He said they had sanitised everything, constantly wiped down benches and customers were told to use eftpos, not cash.

"The pub is quite large and people can spread themselves out [and] we have also left a lot of space for patrons to spread out," Mr Barclay said.

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At the Canberra Irish Club, in Weston, similar measures were being taken.

"We're conscious of it, we're cleaning our stores more often, we're cleaning door handles, we're cleaning tables and things like that more often than we would," Canberra Irish Club president Mary Collier said.

Staff members also watched crowd numbers through the day.

"There would be a capacity for 500 [people] and we are already being very careful, we do a head count every so often," Ms Collier said.

"Our staff are under strict instruction and have a method of counting how many people are here at all times."

While there were few patrons on Tuesday afternoon Ms Collier said she expected the crowd to pick up in the evening, when people left work, and traditional Irish music would be playing through the day.

"A lot of people will come in after work but we'll see how that works with the coronavirus going on," she said.

"I think a lot of people naturally are making their own choices about where they go, what they do and how they behave."

At King O'Malley's, Mr Barclay said given the current situation the day gave hope to the community.

"St Patrick's Day is a community event... it gives people positive news," he said.

"It's a beautiful day in Canberra and the weather doesn't get any better than this. People are enjoying themselves in a safe way."

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