Prime Minister Scott Morrison says schools and universities will remain open amid the deadly coronavirus outbreak.
There have been a total of 280 cases of COVID-19 across Australia, with three people dead.
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A state-by-state breakdown shows 134 cases are in New South Wales, 57 in Victoria, 46 in Queensland, 19 in South Australia, 17 in Western Australia, six in Tasmania, one in the Northern Territory, and one in the ACT.
However Morrison addressed the nation and said schools would indeed remain open despite pleas to have them closed.
“People are naturally anxious about the issues of schools,” he said after a special national cabinet meeting.
“As the British chief medical officer observed over the last couple of days, the issue of wide scale closure of schools, and it may seem counter-intuitive, but the advice is this could be a very negative thing in terms of impacting on how these (epidemic) curves operate, for two reasons.
“When you take children out of school and put them back in the broader community, the ability for them to potentially engage with others increases that risk. That’s the understanding we had.
“Also issues of herd immunity which relate to children. The other is the disruption impact that could have and put at great risk the availability of critical workers such as nurses, doctors and others who are essential in the community because they would have to remain home and look after their children.
“So while it may seem counterintuitive, there (are) very good reasons why you would not be moving to broadscale closures of schools. That could make the situation worse, not better.
“The states and territories are not moving in that direction.”
Morrison confirmed that the issue would be reassessed on Friday.