Australia has been eagerly waiting for the result of the latest National Cabinet meeting.

Many recent National Cabinet meetings have meant big changes for how we live our lives, with business closures, social distancing rules and more all decided there.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy gave an update after Friday's meeting — this is what they said.

The suppression phase

The PM kicked off by announcing that National Cabinet is moving into a new phase to review data and measures in place to reduce the coronavirus spread.

"So, we are in what we describe today as a National Cabinet as the suppression phase," he said.

"We are now in a place where we are seeking to put the pressure down on constraining this virus in Australia."

Mr Morrison made it clear that Australia is expected to be in this phase of managing the virus for some time.

"There will be a recovery phase and we're working at the same time on the road out, not just the road in," he said.

"But that is quite a way away at the moment and we focus on keeping the pressure down on this virus and ensuring the measures, the restrictions, the supports that we have, are sustainable.

"The restrictions that people live under can only be lived under for so long. So that's why it's important that we continue to look at it all the time as a National Cabinet and we calibrate these things to how the country is moving, how they're responding."

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Community transmission is still a problem

Chief Health Officer Brendan Murphy said Australia should be confident in the country's testing measures.

"Our testing has been probably the best in the world and that we are very confident that, whilst there will certainly be some undetected cases, we have a pretty good idea of the size of our outbreak," he said.

"We still have a lot of issues with people who have contracted the virus from overseas. But we are in control of those issues."

But Professor Murphy said a worrying issue at this stage was still community transmission.

"We know there are over 300 of those in Sydney, about 60 in Melbourne, 30 in Brisbane, and smaller numbers in some other states," he said.

"That means that there are people who have COVID-19 or incubating it, who don't know it. That is why we introduced these social distancing measures that we have all been taking to heart really well.

"We are quietly pleased with the direction we are going, but we cannot stop, because those community transmissions have been growing and they are still growing slowly and we have to keep doing the measures to keep them under control."

"I can absolutely assure you that social distancing, combined with the many other measures we've put in place, is saving lives and it is saving livelihoods," Mr Morrison added.

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Crunching the coronavirus modelling numbers

Mr Morrison said there was a further report given today on modelling of different scenarios as the virus continues to spread into Australia.

He said the modelling isn't complete yet, but more will be done over coming days, and we're expected to get another update on that on Tuesday.

"The early news on some of this early modelling is that at the current rate, if we keep doing what we're doing, and we keep doing the work to upgrade our ICU capacity and secure the extra ventilators and all the things we are doing right now, then right now that trajectory is promising," the PM said.

"But there are no guarantees. This virus writes its own rules.

"We have to seek to try and understand them as best we can and respond as best we can to the pressures that we face."

The PM said a daily dashboard would become available from today, with important data and key statistics updated each day.

"The Premiers are updating their information on a daily basis but it is a daily report on where things are at for each and every day," Mr Morrison said.

The dashboard will be available at health.gov.au.

Scott Morrison says he is regularly speaking to world leaders about the coronavirus situation. ( AAP/Lukas Coch )

Places of worship will become workplaces

Good Friday is just one week away, and the PM gave an update on how Easter church services can operate.

He said places of worship will be classified a workplaces — so the same rules will apply for people conducting services as they do for other workplaces.

This doesn't mean churches will open, services will still have to be streamed or similar.

"It means there can be additional people taking part in the celebration of those services," Mr Morrison said.

"Not people going to church, it's the priests and the others formally involved in the conducting of the ceremonies, that way they can be faithfully relayed to the faith groups around the country."

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 27 seconds 1 m 27 s PM says places of worship to be considered workplaces over Easter

The latest on commercial leases

Last weekend, the PM mentioned a moratorium on evictions and said more details on that would emerge today.

Mr Morrison said stakeholder groups representing tenants and landlords had been working on an industry code of practice for commercial tenancies, which was reviewed by the National Cabinet today, but it's not quite ready.

"That code would be made a mandatory code incorporated into state and territory legislation, where appropriate," Mr Morrison said today.

"It will be mandatory for tenancies, that is the tenant and the landlord, where they have a turnover of less than $50 million, and they participate in the JobKeeper program."

The Government and stakeholders are working towards a mandatory code of practice regarding negotiations and discussions between landlords and tenants.

Mr Morrison said negotiations in good faith would be an important part of the code, and that some give and take would be involved between tenants and landlords.

"I should also point out that if you're not a JobSeeker tenant, if you're just a tenant who hasn't had a reduction in their business turnover, then your leasing arrangements stand," Mr Morrison explained.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 2 minutes 2 seconds 2 m 2 s PM says mediation will be available for landlords and tenants who can't agree on rent

"You should be still paying your rent to the landlord. Those things haven't been suspended. These arrangements are designed to address particularly the small and medium size tenancies.

"Many landlords are doing the right thing, talking to their tenants understanding they both need each other and coming to sensible arrangements to get through. But there is unreasonableness from landlords and tenants alike.

"We need a code of behaviour that will be mandatory under state and territory laws to get people into a room and sort it out."

It's expected we'll hear more on this on Tuesday at the next National Cabinet meeting (it's understood there will be no Sunday meeting this week).

Mr Morrison did also clarify some details for residential renters.

"On residential tenancies you will recall there was a moratorium on evictions. That doesn't mean there is a moratorium on rents," he said.

"It means people are responsible for their rents but there is a moratorium on evictions.

"We won't have anyone thrown out of their homes, that's very important. There will be further work done by the treasurers on residential tenancies but the commercial tenancies are what is very important at this point."

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An update for seasonal workers, international students

Mr Morrison said there were still businesses in the agricultural sector who rely on seasonal workers every year — a lot of these workers are usually on working holiday visas.

He encouraged any Australians who want to do that work to apply, but also said there would be opportunities for working holiday visa-holders to do that work too — in ways that limit the spread to regional and rural areas.

"They will be required to self-isolate and register and do that from where they are now for a period of 14 days before they transfer to another part of the country in a rural and regional area," Mr Morrison said.

"At that time, their employer will be looking to see if they have conducted that self-isolation before they would be employed in that work."

Mr Morrison said local, state and territory governments would have to look into ensuring those workers' accommodation was in line with health requirements.

"You can't have six backpackers in a caravan up out in rural parts of the country," he said.

"That's not on. Not gonna happen. You need to have more strict rules round that.

"This is being done to ensure that those producers can get the work done but also to ensure that the communities are protected."

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Mr Morrison said for struggling international students and people on holiday visas, that they needed to consider leaving to get support in their home countries, indicating there would be no further support at this stage for those groups.

"Those who are in Australia, under various visa arrangements, they are obviously not held here compulsorily," he said.

"If they are not in a position to support themselves then there is the alternative for them to return to their home countries.

"At this time, Australia must focus on its citizens and its residents to ensure we can maximise the economic supports that we have."

Where we could be without social distancing

Australia currently has just over 5,300 confirmed coronavirus cases in total.

Professor Murphy said Australia's efforts to limit travel out of Wuhan earlier this year meant that number was not higher.

"The only numbers I have total faith in are the Australian numbers, frankly. Because we have the highest testing rate in the world," he said.

"I think China is in a really difficult position. They did clamp down incredibly hard and they stopped transmission. But their population is not immune.

"I'm certainly not confident even the numbers out of the US are much higher than being reported because nobody else in the world has been doing testing like we have.

"We're on top of our cases. But we still have a long way to go."

Mr Morrison said the decisions Australia had made so far had made a difference.

"Had the virus kept growing at the same rate it was 12 days ago, we would now have more than 10,500 cases in this country," he said.