Smaller indoor events banned
SCHOOLS will stay open but non-essential indoor gatherings of more than 100 people are now banned as the government rolls out further restrictions to stem the spread of coronavirus.
Australians are also being told not to travel overseas and strict restrictions will be placed on visits to aged care homes.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison also bluntly told Australians to stop hoarding groceries and other supplies.
National coronavirus cases are approaching 460 and five people have died. Some 81,000 people have been tested, 99.5 per cent returning a negative test.
Mr Morrison cautioned the changes to daily life would be a long-haul measure, with the government expecting the virus crisis to roll on for at least six months.
“What we are doing, you have to be able to keep doing that and sustain that,” he told reporters in Canberra yesterday.
“There is no two-week answer to what we’re confronting … The idea that you can just turn everything off for two weeks and then turn it all back on again and it all goes away, that is not the evidence.”
The medical assessment is that schools should stay open, and Mr Morrison and chief medical officer Brendan Murphy warned the consequences of closing schools would be severe.
That could include tens of thousands of jobs lost, Mr Morrison said.
But Professor Murphy said school life would have to change, with no assemblies, regular hand washing and strict bans on sick students and teachers.
“It will be hard for schools, but it would be much, much, much harder for society if the schools were closed,” he said.
A ban on non-essential indoor gatherings of more than 100 people is effective immediately. It does not affect public transport, airports, medical facilities, supermarkets and shopping centres, parliaments, courts or jails.
Office buildings, factories, construction or mining sites, schools, universities, childcare facilities and hotels are also exempt, but people should practise social distancing in all these areas, keeping a space of 1.5m between themselves and others.
“Every citizen now has to think about every interaction they have with another person during the day,” Professor Murphy said.
“No more hand-shaking. No more hugging, except in your family … No more scant attention to hand hygiene.”
Strict rules about visitors at aged care facilities are also now in place, barring anyone who has recently travelled, sick people and children except in exceptional circumstances, and from May 1 anyone who hasn’t had a flu vaccination. Only one daily visit of at most two people per resident is allowed.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has updated its travel advice for the second time in 24 hours, now telling all Australians not to travel overseas. Anyone already overseas is urged to return home as soon as possible.
The majority of new coronavirus cases in Australia are still among people who have brought it back from overseas or people in close contact with travellers.
All people arriving from overseas must self-quarantine for 14 days and cruise ships are barred from Australian ports for at least 30 days.
Meanwhile, Mr Morrison has not been tested for coronavirus but was passed healthy after a check-up.