Coronavirus Australia live updates: PM reveals tough new restrictions for Aussies

Australians will face even tougher restrictions on social interactions due to the deadly coronavirus after a National Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday evening.

Scott Morrison has announced more businesses will be forced to close due to the growing number of coronavirus cases, along with even tougher restrictions on social interactions.

Beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salons and tattoo parlors are among the latest businesses that will be forced to shut their doors as Australia moves to the next stage in the fight against the COVID-19 virus.

The new rules will come into effect from midnight tomorrow, with restrictions also placed on how many people can attend weddings and funerals.

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There are now 2044 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia with eight deaths so far. There are 818 in New South Wales, 411 in Victoria, 397 in Queensland, 170 in South Australia, 175 in Western Australia, 28 in Tasmania, 39 in the Australian Capital Territory and six in the Northern Territory.

Our live coverage has wrapped for the day, here's how it played out.

Updates

10:52 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

Everything that will be banned

Here is a wrap up on everything that will be banned under stage two restrictions:

• Beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salon and tattoo parlors will all be forced to close.
• Food courts in shopping centres will be restricted to take away like cafes.
• Community and recreation centres, health clubs, fitness centres, yoga, barre, spin facilities, saunas, wellness centres will close
• Boot camps and personal training sessions are limited to a maximum of 10 people with strict social distancing rules enforced.
• Galleries, museums, national institutions, historic sites, libraries, community centres, nonessential facilities, community facilities such as halls will be closed
• Weddings will be restricted to five people including the couple, celebrant and witnesses. Funerals will be restricted to 10 people.
• People have been told only to go outside if absolutely necessary, such as shopping for essentials and exercise.
• Social events such as family gatherings and birthday parties should be avoided.
• Australians will soon be banned from all international travel.

These new restrictions will come into effect from midnight tomorrow.

10:34 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

Authorities 'very worried' about rising virus cases

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said he is "very worried" about the significant rise in coronavirus cases in Australia over the last few days.

"It is a very, very steep growth and it is very concerning," he said.

"Still, a significant proportion of those new cases are returned travellers or contacts of returned travellers.

"I want to emphasise again that we are really serious now about a return traveller. You leave the airport, you go home and stay there for 14 days and the states and territories will be checking on you.

"We will not tolerate anybody putting the community at risk as a returned traveller.

People coming back from some countries – you know which ones they are – have a high risk now of carrying the coronavirus and they are the people who've largely led to the spread of the virus in our community over the recent weeks."

Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP

Dr Murphy added that people who have been in contact with a person diagnosed with the virus and told to isolate for 14 days must do so.

"You must not go to the chemist when you are told you have got the disease," he said.

"Some people are being told they are a positive case and going into the chemist or the supermarket on the way home."

Dr Murphy said that people need to adhere to social distancing recommendations, saying that everyone will need to change the way they interact with others for "quite a long time".

"This virus will be with us for some time. We have to all think about avoiding any unnecessary interactions where you are close to someone and could place them at risk," he said.

"These measures are really draconian. We know that. But if we're going to control community transmission, we have to stop the capacity of this virus from spreading from person to person.

"And I have said many times, it is a long haul and that is why we are keen to keep society functioning but keep society safe."

10:14 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

Australians to be banned from travelling overseas

Australians will soon be banned from travelling overseas, Mr Morrison announced.

A do-not-travel warning was put in place regarding overseas travel for Aussies but that will now be upgraded to a ban.

"There will be exceptions to these rules which will be set out in the directive that will be provided. But this would include people involved in aid work in the Pacific and the support we're providing," Mr Morrison said.

"It may involve compassionate travel and essential travel for employment, things of that nature.

"The number of people and the number who are leaving Australia now is very, very low. But, still, it strikes me on those numbers there are people defying that advice and looking to go overseas on leisure travel."

Picture: Saeed Khan/AFP

Mr Morrison said because there are still Australians ignoring the do not travel advice a ban must be put in place to ensure other people aren't put at risk.

The PM also added there will be a crackdown on people seeking to profit from buying large amounts of supplies and selling them.

"We are putting in place arrangements that make it an offence and seize at the border those who have engaged in profiteering by bringing together and making large purposes of various supplies in Australia and seeking to export them overseas," he said.

"Now, it doesn't relate to normal commercial legal activities, but we have been able to seize at the border, and Minister for Home Affairs can speak to this, quantities of materials seeking to be sent overseas and that is not helping Australia and is not doing the right thing and there will be penalties.

"We will be able to seize the equipment including medical supplies, including personal protective equipment, and that will be seized and redeployed to its best use here in Australia."

10:03 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

Advice on schools unchanged

Mr Morrison said the advice on whether schools should stay open "has not changed".

"It is safe to send your children to school," the PM said.

Mr Morrison said he would be meeting with the education minister and education national unions tomorrow to discuss how to proceed.

"(We will) discuss a set of arrangements we would like to proceed with, that importantly keep schools open, that also will protect those teachers and other staff who are working in schools and to work through those issues to ensure we can put acceptable arrangements in place," he said.

"I said this the other day: This is incredibly important. It's going to be a tough year in 2020 and one of the things I don't want to have yielded up is a year of a child's education, which is so important. We need to work so hard together to try and ensure that those kids get that education and that is not lost to this virus."

9:56 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

Stay home unless 'absolutely necessary'

Australians have been told to stay in their homes unless it is "absolutely necessary" to go outside.

"Going out for the basics, going out for an exercise, perhaps with your partner or family members, provided it's a small group, that's fine," Mr Morrison said.

"But going outside and going out and participating more broadly in the community unless you're shopping for basics or there are medical needs or you're providing care and support to an individual at another place."

He said people should also try and limit the number of people visiting their homes.

"We don't want to be overly specific about that, we want Australians to exercise their common sense," Mr Morrison said.

"So that means barbecues of lots of friends, or even family, extended family, coming together to celebrate 1-year-old birthday parties and those sorts of things, we can't do those things now.

"These will be a significant sacrifice, I know."

Picture: Lukas Coch/AAP

The PM said that states and territories will be looking at whether specific restrictions will be placed on people having house parties and other gatherings with multiple people.

"The medical experts panel have made suggestions about how that can be managed. It's very difficult to put a number on it. But the point about it is this: If you're gathering together in a group, say, 10 people, together, outside in a group, that's not OK," he said.

"We've got to move people on. It's not a hard and fast rule. I say it only for illustrative purposes.

"You should only go outside your home to go to those essential things I talked about, not to go and congregate in groups."

9:46 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

Tough new rules for weddings and funerals

Strict restrictions will be placed on weddings and funerals.

Mr Morrison said that weddings can still continue but will be restricted to five people including the couple, celebrant and witnesses.

"The four square meeting rule has to be observed within the venue in which that is taking place," he said.

"But, large gatherings for weddings, sadly, won't be possible under these new arrangements."

The PM also announced that while funerals could also still be held, no more than 10 people would be allowed to attend.

Mr Morrison said he knew this rule would be "very difficult" for some and that it was "not an easy decision".

"Where we have already found, and Dr Murphy can speak to this, some of the events that have been some of the major transmitting events, it has been exactly these types of events, particularly weddings," he said.

"And that is why, regretfully, we have to be able to put these arrangements in place."

9:37 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

More businesses forced to shut down

Mr Morrison announced that a number of extra businesses would also be forced to close their doors under the new restrictions.

"The following now won't be able to continue: Beauty therapy, tanning, waxing, nail salons and tattoo parlors," he said.

Services like physiotherapy and allied health will not be included in the ban as they are considered essential.

Hairdressers and barbers will be able to stay open but must follow social distancing rules and adhere to the limits on the number of people that can be on the premises.

"On top of that, to restrict the amount of time a patron is in the premise to no more than 30 minutes. And preferably less," Mr Morrison said.

Amusement parks, arcades, indoor and outdoor play centres have also been included in the ban.

9:30 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

PM announces new restrictions

Scott Morrison has announced news restrictions as the coronavirus cases continue to grow around the country.

"Tonight, we agreed to extend the restrictions that were announced on Sunday night, but to do so in a manner that was consistent with the types of measures that we announced on Sunday night," he told reporters tonight.

"What I mean by that is there was an initial list of activities that largely went to the issues of social gatherings, particularly in enclosed spaces, that was being done to restrict the amount of contact between people outside activities such as going to work and things of that nature."

Picture: Sam Mooy/Getty Images

Mr Morrison said that along with the restrictions already placed on cafes and restaurants, food courts would now also be restricted to take away.

"Food courts in shopping centres will not be allowed to continue. But getting take away from those food outlets in those shopping centres, that can continue because take away is able to be done," he said.

"In the retail space, auction houses, gathering together in auction rooms, that can no longer continue. Real estate auctions and open house inspections in particular open house inspections, that cannot continue."

He added that indoor and outdoor markets would also be banned, excluding a few that were "essential to ensure food supply".

These bans will come into effect from midnight tomorrow.

9:19 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

PM to give virus update

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will address the media in a few minutes time over whether Australians will face tougher restrictions on social interactions.

A National Cabinet meeting is being held tonight where federal and state and territory leaders are expected to decide whether Australia should move towards “stage two” restrictions.

This could see a ban on social gatherings in people’s own homes such as birthdays, weddings and barbecues.

Stage one restrictions announced on Sunday included ordering pubs, clubs, hotels, gyms, cafes, cinemas, casinos and restaurants to close.

7:25 pm March 24, 2020 Highlight

Woolworths cuts 8000 jobs over virus impact

Woolworths has stood down 8000 workers following the Government ban on pubs, clubs and hotel.

Woolworths on Tuesday said it was trying to redeploy the staff from its Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group, which operates hundreds of licensed venues around Australia as well as the groups bottle shops, to other roles after Government ordered hospitality venues to close to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

The supermarket giant said the venue closures, and changes to shopping behaviour at its stores, meant it could not estimate the impact of the virus on its full year financial results.

Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH) operates 323 hotels, nightclubs, restaurants, cafes and sports bars.

A spokesman said 650 ALH employees had been offered roles at BWS, Dan Murphys and Woolworths.

Another 2000 employees would receive offers in the next 24 hours.

The announcements follow federal government orders on Monday to close many food and drink venues – where people gather – to close to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

These venues may still operate bottle shops and takeaway services.

Further restrictions are expected to be announced by the Prime Minister after tonight's national cabinet meeting.

AAP