The Governments of New South Wales, Victoria and ACT beat the Prime Minister in flagging a host of closures across their states on Sunday, hours before the Federal Government's crackdown on indoor venues.

Key points: The shutdowns will not impact supermarkets, pharmacies and banks

The shutdowns will not impact supermarkets, pharmacies and banks Mr Morrison says schools will remain open but parents can choose to keep their children at home

Mr Morrison says schools will remain open but parents can choose to keep their children at home Victoria will bring forward school holidays to begin on Tuesday

Following a National Cabinet meeting, Scott Morrison said that indoor entertainment, sporting and religious venues would be closed as of midday on Monday.

But hours before that meeting, Victoria, ACT and NSW Governments announced they were proceeding with a more comprehensive shutdown of non-essential services over the next 48 hours.

Under the new measures, supermarkets, petrol stations, pharmacies, convenience stores, freight and logistics, and home delivery services will remain open.

Prior to the meeting, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews made clear that their states would be pursuing these more drastic measures.

Mr Andrews said the step was necessary or "our hospitals will be overwhelmed, and more Victorians will die".

Ms Berejiklian said she would "update NSW tomorrow morning about the impacts and our plans following the National Cabinet".

NSW has moved past 500 confirmed cases of coronavirus, reaching 533 as of 8:00pm on Saturday, while the Victorian tally now sits at 296.

Schools to remain open

On Sunday night, the Prime Minister said schools would remain open until the end of term.

Mr Morrison said children should go to school, but that parents could keep them home if they chose to.

In their announcements earlier on Sunday, the three states said schools would remain open on Monday, but Victoria's school holidays would be brought forward to start on Tuesday.

NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Tim Reardon and Premier Gladys Berejiklian at the National Cabinet meeting. ( Supplied )

Planning for next term

Mr Andrews said: "The decision whether to re-open schools after the Term 1 holidays will … be determined following advice from the chief health officer".

Mr Andrews's office said it would not be comment or clarify further until the National Cabinet meeting.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he would be following the recommendations made at the Cabinet meeting on the operation of schools, although Education Minister Yvette Berry said teachers would need to prepare to move their classes online, at least until the end of the term.

Pupils in ACT schools will be told to stay home from Tuesday, as teachers scramble to transition away from face-to-face learning and towards delivering classes online.

In-person schooling will still be available to children who need it, but the ACT Government has not said how those children will be defined.

The pupil-free arrangements will continue until the school holidays begin in two weeks' time.

Coronavirus 'red zones' could face lockdown

Earlier on Sunday, both Western Australia and South Australia announced they were closing their borders as of Tuesday, requiring any travellers to go into self-isolation for two weeks. Tasmania and the Northern Territory already have such restrictions in place.

Political leaders were expected to consider urgent and "draconian" powers allowing authorities to shut down so-called COVID-19 "red zones", meaning state police officers would prevent residents from travelling to less infected suburbs or areas.

Mr Morrison warned the closures announced on Sunday night were the first stage of the crackdown. He said future closures would be introduced if people continued to ignore social distancing requirements.

The Prime Minister also warned the closures could continue for six months.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 3 minutes 7 seconds 3 m 7 s Scott Morrison calls for better social distancing, brings forward Cabinet meeting

Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter warned the Commonwealth may need to use unprecedented quarantine laws to restrict the movement of people.

Over the weekend health authorities were dismayed by numerous examples of crowds ignoring guidelines on social distancing, instead cramming into popular locations such as Bondi Beach.

"What happened at Bondi Beach yesterday was not OK and served as a message to federal and state leaders that too many Australians are not taking these issues seriously enough," Mr Morrison said.

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The country's rate of new confirmed coronavirus cases is now growing at 20-25 per cent a day, with some projections showing between 1 or 2 million Australians could be infected by the end of April.

If those numbers were reached, tens of thousands of people would be dead based on the mortality rate recorded by China earlier this year.

The Prime Minister warned Australia's healthcare system would struggle if Australians did not observe social distancing.

"If Australians don't play their part, they can't then believe that the system won't come under greater stress," Mr Morrison said.

"And this is why we're trying to be so clear about this."