Coronavirus: Schools to remain open across Australia

Scott Morrison has announced that schools will remain open despite the growing number of coronavirus cases, saying it is in the “national interest”.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that schools across Australia will remain open as the government works to lessen the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Mr Morrison said it was in the “national interest” that all schools across the country continue to run.

“In relation to schools and preschools, the situation has not changed. It is in the national interest to ensure that we keep schools open, and I want to thank all of those schools who have been putting those arrangements in place," he told reporters.

“For those schools who have moved to distance learning for their students, I want to thank those schools who have ensured that, even in those circumstances, they have arranged for students of parents who have essential responsibilities, they may be nurses or doctors, childcare workers, they may be teachers themselves.

“They are arranging for those students to continue to receive lessons in that facility. That is what we want to see happen.”

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that schools will remain open. Picture: Gary Ramage

During the press conference a reporter questioned Mr Morrison over the decision to keep schools open, citing a case in Adelaide where a student contracted the COVID-19 virus from a teacher.

“That outcome that you’ve mentioned with a single transference, that would not be unexpected when you’ve got the number of cases increasing,” the PM said.

“But it still remains the case that the facts are that the incidents of cases among younger people is much lower than for the rest of the population and it is still very much the case that 30 per cent of our health workforce would be compromised if schools were to be shut around the country.”

He said the government would continue to monitor the situation and take advice from healthcare professionals.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy followed up Mr Morrison’s comments by reiterating that the risk the virus posed to children was very low.

“Only 2.4 per cent of all the cases in China in Hubei Province were under 19, and there have been very, very few significant cases,” he said.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy said that the risk posed to children from coronavirus was very low. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

“Obviously we do have some concerns that children may have a role in transmission but most children who have seemed to have got the virus have got it from adults as you’ve seen in this case.

“We think keeping children at home when there is relatively no community spread is probably

disproportionate given they probably won’t stay at home anyway.”

Dr Murphy said the government’s strategy for the next six months was to keep schools open, saying the decision was “risk appropriate”.

The news about schools staying open came as more restrictions were put in place for indoor gatherings of less than 100 people.

Venues will now be limited to four square metres provided per person in an enclosed space in a room.

“So for example, if you’ve got a room, if you’ve got a premises, if you’ve got a meeting room or something like that, that’s 100 square metres, then you can have 25 people in that room,” Mr Morrison said.

“Now, in addition to that, you should continue to practise wherever possible the 1-metre or 1.5-metre of healthy distance between each of us, to ensure that we are limiting the contact and limiting the potential for the spread of the virus.”

He added: “I know these rules will take some time for people to get used to, but I would ask people to move as quickly as they can.

“I know it means a lot of change for a lot of venues, whether they be cafes or restaurants or clubs or any of these other places of public gathering, including at this building here.

“We’ll be working to ensure that people know how many people can be in the various meeting rooms at this place.”