Schools, universities, polytechnics and early-childhood centres have been labelled "very, very safe places" to be despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday that gatherings of at least 500 people were banned, prompting a cascade of event cancellations across the country.

Schools and universities were exempt from the decision, with Ardern saying specific advice on how those institutions would contribute to stamping out Covid-19 would be delivered by the Ministry of Education.

Supplied Some schools are preparing to teach online if necessary.

Speaking on Tuesday, Minister Chris Hipkins said schools had been asked to "consider their practices" by choosing not to have gatherings like school assemblies, but right now there was no need to close them.

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"We've also got to keep in mind that transmission rates internationally amongst young people are very, very low. School-aged students are not the target population, if you like.

"At the moment, there is no scientific reason for school closures," Hipkins said.

Instead, he encouraged parents to continue sending their children to school, as it was "a very, very safe place for them to be".

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Education Minister Chris Hipkins says parents should continue to send their children to school right now, as children are not the "target population" of coronavirus.

"If that changes, well then of course, our advice will change. At the moment, there are no community outbreaks in New Zealand .... at the moment, there is no evidential base for closing schools."

Ministry of Health director-general Dr Ashley Bloomfield told reporters on Tuesday that closing schools was an option, but said Singapore and Taiwan had opted not to shut their doors.

The Prime Minister's chief science advisor has been asked to look at what other countries have done but so far there had been a mixed approach, he explained.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF The Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says closing schools is an option in the future, but at the moment "there is no community transmission".

"Our approach is we can pivot to [close schools], but at the moment we don't have community transmission," Bloomfield said.

Recognising the Covid-19 situation was changing rapidly, the minister said moving or expanding the upcoming Easter school holidays could be an option should a community outbreak emerge.

Ministry of Education spokeswoman Katrina Casey said there were no plans to close all schools before the school holidays, but it was planning for "various scenarios".

School officials in England were considering closures, while some Scottish schools were shutting their gates to enable deep cleans to be carried out.

Web-based teaching was also an option being considered here, should schools be thrust into shutdown, Hipkins confirmed.

"We're looking at all of the online learning infrastructure that we have, that that's as robust as possible, making sure that that's available to everyone should it be needed.

"At the moment, we're a long, long, long way away from that though."

Some Wellington schools are already preparing its students to teach online should the need arise.

Onslow College is conducting a 'home learning' trial day on Wednesday, March 25 where both students and teachers will work from home.

Tawa College principal Murray Lucas has told parents and caregivers the Ministry was "surveying schools regarding capacity to deliver online lessons."

He said that while delivering web-based learning sounded straightforward, it was "in fact extremely complex".

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