Schools and universities are preparing for shutdowns as Australia’s peak medical association warns the government will “almost certainly” have to go ahead with the widespread closure of education facilities.

Following a meeting with state premiers on Friday, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced mass gatherings of more than 500 people should be cancelled in a bid to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

But schools, universities, public transport and airports were exempt from the advice, Morrison said, because they were essential services.

“This is a scalable response,” Morrison said.

“We are taking an abundance of caution approach, which is what we have all the way through. What we are seeking to do is to lower the level of overall risk, and at the same time ensure that we minimise any broader disruption that is not necessary at this stage to engage in.”

But while the AMA welcomed the government’s announcement, the association’s South Australian president, Chris Moy, said school closures “almost certainly” follow and that it was better to make the decision now to help flatten the spread of the virus.

“The AMA’s view at this moment in time is that these really hard decisions will have to be made and that will have to include, either now or very soon, the closure of schools,” he said.

Quick Guide Coronavirus advice for Australia Show What are the common symptoms of Covid-19? Fever

Dry cough

Fatigue

Muscle aches and pains When should I get tested? The current national advice is to get tested if you:

are experiencing the symptoms above, and

have travelled overseas recently (within the past 14 days); or

have been in close contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19 Help lines The national coronavirus health information hotline is 1800 020 080.

The federal health department has a coronavirus health alert website. The state health department websites and contact numbers are:

NSW – 1300 066 055

Victoria – 1800 675 398

Queensland – 13 HEALTH or 13 432 584

South Australia – 1300 232 272

Western Australia – 1300 62 32 92

Tasmania – 1800 671 738

ACT – Business hours: 02 5124 9213, after hours: 02 9962 4155

Northern Territory – 08 8922 8044

“What we are trying to do is make people understand that there is a real need for the hard stuff to be done upfront because that will make things easier later. People talk about flattening the curve, and what that means is we want to avoid a huge lump of people getting sick at one time and overwhelming our health system.

“Schools are pigeon-holed into same the same category as other large gatherings, and if the safety of children can be maintained then I think the schools will need to be looking at closing very soon.”

But while schools will remain open, both public and private education facilities are preparing for closures. An internal email sent to staff at the University of Sydney on Friday by the vice-chancellor, Michael Spence, and seen by the Guardian said preparations were already being made to close the campus.

“I know many of you have questions about the circumstances under which we would temporarily close part or all of our campuses,” he said.

“This decision will depend on a number of factors, including the number of confirmed cases in our staff and student community, the location of these cases across campus, and the advice of NSW Health.”



He said the university was “preparing for multiple scenarios” including the potential closure of buildings affected by exposure to the virus, or “asking staff to work from home where possible, to suspending all non-critical operations of the university”.

Spence said the university was already “progressively moving as much of our teaching to online delivery mode as possible for the period of the pandemic” and also “strongly advised” staff and students not to book any international travel “until further notice”.

In New South Wales, where a number of schools have been temporarily closed following confirmed cases of the virus, the education minister, Sarah Mitchell, said the department was preparing for the interruption of classes by ramping up the use of technology.

“We have known that there has always been a chance that a number of students could have their learning impacted by the spread of Covid-19 ,” Mitchell said.

“Teachers have already begun planning and many lessons are ready to be delivered digitally to students. The department can hold live school assemblies and broadcasts, and principals can connect will all staff and students with internet access.”

On Friday Morrison said the new measures preventing mass gatherings would be introduced from Monday, and that he still planned to attend a football match this weekend.

While the decision to delay its introduction was taken in line with the advice from the nation’s peak health advisory body, the Australian Health Protection Principles Committee, the national head of the AMA, Tony Bartone, said Morrison should “lead by example”.

“We acknowledge and agree with the government in calling for the cancellation of mass events,” he said.

“I am saying the prime minister obviously has made an announcement, and messaging and optics is very important in that space. I would like to think he would follow the advice of his chief medical officers.”

Australia’s chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, said the decision to delay the introduction of advice against mass gatherings to Monday was made to allow authorities to grapple with the implications of the directions.

“We are going to work with the expert advice over the weekend to work out what the implications of that are and to give advice to governments on the finer details of that,” he said.

“We haven’t thought that through fully yet, and we will be presenting that to governments. We think that by [Monday] we’ll start to see a few more cases of community transmission.

“There is no immediacy about this but we need to get ahead of the curve. The recommendation was Monday and the premiers and the prime minister agreed with that. It wouldn’t matter if they made a decision one or two days either side, it was felt it was a reasonable time to progress.”