On Monday, students right across Australia will arrive as normal to their schools and universities for classes, but all large sporting and entertainment events won't go ahead because of coronavirus fears.

Key points: Health experts say current advice is to keep schools open across Australia

Health experts say current advice is to keep schools open across Australia But the Victorian Premier says the closure of schools is more a case of when, not if

But the Victorian Premier says the closure of schools is more a case of when, not if Australians told coronavirus response will keep evolving and plans could change

So why are schools, public transport and airports OK to keep operating at this stage, even though those places might also have large numbers of people gathering?

What did our chief medical officer say?

In a press conference on Friday, Brendan Murphy described the move to cancel non-essential events with crowds of 500 people or more as a precautionary measure.

"We have seen increases in numbers every day and we do feel there will be a time over coming weeks that it will be time to take precautionary, advanced measures to limit those large events," he said.

But he said this should not interrupt our daily lives at this stage.

"The risk to the Australian community in general still remains low, most of our cases are still imported," he said.

And he said the risk in public places like on trains or in airports still remains lower than at large events that are being cancelled.

"Generally speaking, we are talking about a static gathering where people are together for a period of perhaps up to two hours is generally where you have a high risk of exposure," Professor Murphy explained.

"Casual exposure where you are walking through a train station or an airport is much, much lower risk."

PM says it is a 'scalable' response

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia was taking an "abundance of caution approach" to combating coronavirus.

"It does not eliminate all risk, this is not an absolute measure, this is still the early stages of this and community transmission is still at a low level," he said.

Mr Morrison said further measures would be introduced over time, but said that "we are not of any great concern right now in terms of where those gatherings might be today, but in the weeks ahead this will change, this is a matter of scaling our response."

He said essential parts of life needed to continue at this stage.

"Parliament is essential, going to school is essential, going to work is essential, going about your normal business, taking your kids to preschool, all of these things will continue," he said.

School closures a matter of time, Victorian Premier says

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Friday schools would be temporarily closed if a student tested positive, and would remain that way until it was safe for them to reopen, as has already been the case.

"What is really critical is school is essential, it is safe to go to school and when it is not, we will shut down that particular school and work with the school community to reopen at the appropriate time," she said.

Ms Berejiklian added that it was an evolving situation and circumstances could change.

Sporting events won't have crowds larger than 500 people from Monday. ( AAP: Lukas Coch )

But Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said while schools could remain open now, it was almost certain they would close at some stage.

"Frustratingly, I can't tell you exactly when that will be, but it is more than a likelihood that we will have significant disruptions to schools," he said.

On Saturday, one Victorian school decided to close its doors early despite having no cases of coronavirus.

Geelong Grammar has announced it will end term one early from 5:00pm on Wednesday.

Closing schools can cause health 'complications'

Julian Rait, who is the Victorian president of the Australian Medical Association, said it was important Australia cancelled large gatherings like sporting and entertainment events.

"Our trajectory was such that had we not done this, we could have followed places like Italy that didn't take measures early enough," he said.

But he said closing schools did create childcare issues that could also have health impacts.

He said one concern was grandparents being relied upon to help with looking after children, when they may be in the groups vulnerable to coronavirus.

Professor Rait said the other issue was figuring out how to keep healthcare professionals at work if they had kids.

"You could have couples where both parents are healthcare workers, what do they do?" he said.

"We don't want them out of work, especially at a time when there may be other people missing from the workforce because of ill health."

He said the evidence from China suggested that children do not seem to be implicated in the transmission of coronavirus.

Professor Rait said the biggest positive step closing schools would bring would be to create social distancing between parents.

But West Australian Medical Association president Andrew Miller told the ABC he predicted widespread school closures in the near future.

"I suspect what will happen is that schools won't go back after the holidays," he said.

What do parents say?

At South Melbourne Primary School, parents had mixed views when speaking to the ABC.

Matt Oliver said he was worried about classes continuing at his daughter's school.

Matt Oliver's daughter Judith attends South Melbourne Primary School, where he is worried about the spread of cornavirus. ( ABC )

"I am a bit concerned because my daughter is half-Italian and we have Italian family as well and we know they are under lockdown," he said.

"I am a bit concerned about it, given the amount of people who come to the school in-and-out, we don't know who has got it, who may have it, the symptoms show up a few days later."

But he said it was a difficult decision for authorities to decide the immediate future of schools.

"I am concerned for my daughter's education, obviously. It is her first year of school — but we don't want it to spread like wildfire."

Madan Lanka said he was worried about children still going to school.

"We are worried that it might spread but as of now there are no cases [at the school]," he said.

But he believes taking preventative steps early would be best for students and families.