Do the advantages gained in slowing down the coronavirus outweigh the problems shutting down schools would create? Let's compare.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that Australian schools will remain open across Australia with a strong message for any parents keeping their children out of school.

“If you choose to keep your child at home, you are responsible for the conduct and behaviour of your children,” he said in a televised press conference on Sunday night.

“It is important that they observe the strict social distancing arrangements that have been advised to the public.

He said schools in each state and territory would remain open for the rest of term one.

Earlier, Mr Morrison met with medical experts, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and health officers of all states and territories Sunday afternoon to decide an action plan on school closures in Australia.

Victoria has already acted, announcing it’s bringing forward Easter holidays to Tuesday. New South Wales was also pushing for a schools shutdown.

ABC host David Speers asked Mr Morrison for his advice after using Victoria’s decision as an example.

“The universal positions of all states and territories, including Premier Andrews, as recently as late last week, was that all schools should remain open,” Mr Morrison said.

“That’s changed now, though, hasn’t it?” Mr Speers said.

“As I flagged at the time, David, if the advice changes into the future, then obviously the measures states and territories will also change. But what hasn’t changed is that in a situation, if a state and territory was to move to make those decisions, it is vitally important that health workers and other essential workers are in a position to have their children to attend schools. Otherwise, you’re taking out 30 per cent of your health workers,” the PM said.

Mr Morrison said he knew provisions were in place in NSW but that he was unaware about the Victorian situation, prompting Mr Speers to ask: “Isn’t this meant to be done through a national process?”

“This will be done through the National Cabinet. The National Cabinet is the first time this has ever been put in place in our federal history.”

Mr Speers asked if the PM was “annoyed” that some of the states had announced school closures ahead of the National Cabinet meeting, which Mr Morrison denied.

“No, I’m not. Because it’s not for any leader to be getting annoyed about anything. It’s about leaders being focused on the job they have ahead of them and respecting the job of other leaders.”

Earlier NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in a statement that she would be informing the National Cabinet that NSW would proceed to a more comprehensive shutdown of non-essential services.

“This will take place over the next 48 hours. Supermarkets, petrol stations, pharmacies, convenience stores, freight and logistics, and home delivery will be among the many services that will remain open,” she said.

“Schools will be open tomorrow, though I will have more to say on this issue on Monday morning”.

READ MORE: All the latest coronavirus updates

‘YOUNG PEOPLE HAVE DIED’

Earlier, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said the Prime Minister is very keen on keeping a federal national approach but each of the states and territories have their own particular issues they need to deal with.

“In Victoria, the Easter holidays are starting on Friday anyway so closing on Tuesday would not be a huge change to that. But they may need to take their own individual situations into account,” he said.

Mr Kelly made a stark warning: “I would like to stress this, particularly to young people, you are not immune from this virus. While we have seen across the world people getting this very severe infection, the 20 per cent who get it are mostly older people but some young people have also had severe infection.

“Some young people have died and some young people have transmitted that infection to other members of their family. This is an important message for everybody, including all components of society, to take this message very seriously.”

Mr Kelly said officials are aware “of the increasing absenteeism” in schools and said there is much that schools can do and are doing to protect kids and to protect their staff.

“Messages about hygiene, about cough etiquette, about staying at home when sick, about cleaning surfaces, about social distancing. I recognise these are very difficult particularly in the younger years of school but reassuringly they have been very few cases of COVID-19 in children in Australia, similar to where we have seen the rest of the world and of those cases, almost all of them have been extremely mild.

"Tonight I will be informing the National Cabinet that NSW will proceed to a more comprehensive shutdown of non-essential services" @GladysB "This will take place over the next 48 hours" #COVID19Aus #auspol @SBSNews pic.twitter.com/CjADodpnaG — Brett Mason (@BrettMasonNews) March 22, 2020

NATIONAL CABINET MEETING

Nine News political editor Chris Uhlmann said the outcome of the national cabinet meeting was likely to be agreed upon by all states and territories but political reporter for the ABC, Josh Probyn, said if the measures were not agreed upon tonight, “Victoria will go it alone”.

The Herald Sunsaid ”in breaking news, Victoria will shut schools on Tuesday the Premier says - even if the rest of Australia doesn’t”.

Scott Morrison confirmed the issue would be presented to all of the ministers Sunday afternoon and would meet as a National Cabinet Sunday night to consider the response.

The meeting has been brought forward from Tuesday.

“That is the orderly and calm way to deal with these things and to make decisions in the responsive matter,” he said.

#BREAKING: The National Cabinet is set to meet again this evening as NSW and Victoria push for a statewide lockdown. #9News pic.twitter.com/wrpsaLm5LW — Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) March 22, 2020

Mr Probyn told the ABC New South Wales and Victoria are pushing “behind the scenes for there to be a shutdown of all non-essential services, including businesses, no clubs, no restaurants.”

“But we also know that the states, particularly Victoria, want to have a shutdown of schools from Tuesday. If that is not agreed by National Cabinet, Victoria, I understand, we’ll go it alone. Now, this is a critical point in the national response on the coronavirus.

“The great advantage of having a National Cabinet formed by the Prime Minister, with the agreement of the premiers and chief ministers, is that you have a consistent message and a consistent response.

“The government and the National Cabinet’s view so far, on the basis of medical advice, the best medical advice, is that shutting schools would do more harm than good.

“But we might have a breakdown in that consistent response as of Tuesday. So this is going to be quite a discussion tonight, one would think, because we are looking at now a major, major shutdown, a lockdown of businesses across Australia, potentially, coming very, very soon.”

PM KEEPS UP SCHOOL DEFENCE

In an earlier press conference Sunday, Mr Morrison defended his actions to keep schools open, assuring Australians that “I have been following the same health advice on attendance to school that I have offered to all Australians. I want to be very clear about that.

“I would also ask, and this goes for all members of parliament and all public figures, I would ask you to be respectful about the privacy of our families and of our children.

“I am aware of circumstances where the children of members of parliament and the schools they are attending were the subject of some attention. I don’t think that is fair to our kids, I really don’t.”

“The issues that we have been presenting on, importantly, on the medical advice that we have had, remain the same challenges. It is still the case, and the evidence is, that the incidence of the coronavirus among younger people is far lower than it is for the rest of the population, and so the health risk to children is less, is our advice, than to other parts of the population.

“It is also still the fact that, if there were widespread school closures across the country, that would seriously impact and disrupt the health workforce that is needed to save lives.

“And so that is a paramount consideration also of the National Cabinet. But we will continue to consider all of these issues based on the expert advice.

“We will do that in a calm and reasoned manner according to the disciplined process we have set for ourselves, which means we are all working together and being nationally co-ordinated in our responses.”

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