He said a way to start managing spread was to reduce the number of students in schools, especially because it was impossible to enforce the 1.5-metre social distancing rule there.

“If you get a case of coronavirus in your school, which could well happen in many schools across Western Australia in the coming months, that school will be closed the next day,” Dr Miller said.

“That would happen suddenly, it could be chaotic and cause panic.

“What we at the AMA are asking is that we start now to reduce the school population for children who can be educated and accommodated elsewhere, taken out of the system.

“That way the virus is a lot less likely to enter the school and cause a sudden and major disruption.”

Dr Miller said the closure of schools needed to be done in a controlled and staged manner so students who needed to “absolutely” be at school because of family circumstances remained there unless there was a confirmed case linked to the facility.

With WA about two weeks behind the countries worst hit by the outbreak, Dr Miller said it was crucial we used them as an example and try to buy time through isolation to reduce the risk of the pending community spread.

“If we can buy another week, we can drop the peak of that curve by about two thirds, according to the Chinese estimates,” he said.

Dr Miller said early as next week parents should start looking at pulling their children out of school if possible to prevent the “inevitable” school closures being chaotic and causing panic.