"We have been practising and preparing for this for many weeks now," the ACT's Chief Health Officer, Kerryn Coleman, said.

The decision to postpone overseas travel for federal politicians until at least the May federal budget came days before one delegation was due to fly to London, and coincides with disruptions to three other planned trips due to existing travel bans.

It was made in consultation with the federal workplace insurer ComCare and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

The virus spread to two universities on Thursday and, in a headline-grabbing development, infected actor Tom Hanks and his wife, actress Rita Wilson.

One student at La Trobe University and a woman who had visited the University of Tasmania tested positive for the illness on Thursday, prompting disinfection operations and self-isolation of close contacts, but no campus closures.

High school shut

The student at La Trobe's Bundoora campus had attended class within the past week and "the limited number of areas the student visited last week have been deep cleaned according to [official] guidelines", the university confirmed in a statement.

University of Tasmania vice-chancellor, Rufus Black, urged people who had been at the Morris Miller library on the university's Sandy Bay Campus between 9:30am and 5:30pm on Monday to submit for testing, if they start feeling unwell, after a visitor who had travelled in South America and New Zealand became the state's third case.


Westbourne Grammar, a high school in Melbourne, announced it would shut until Monday, while a student underwent testing, becoming the third school in Victoria to temporarily close this week.

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, both aged 63, tested positive for coronavirus on the Gold Coast and were hospitalised.

The total number of cases around Australia reached 155, with Hanks and Wilson adding to the 27 cases confirmed by Queensland authorities.

The Premier of NSW, which is the state that accounts for around half of these cases, said there was no need to "massively change what you are doing, but it's not business as usual", and that the situation was rapidly evolving.

Flu season

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said state authorities were considering restrictions on mass gatherings and events, and expanded their advice to self-exclude from mass gatherings to all people who had been in any overseas country and were feeling unwell.

Previous advice applied only to people who had returned from countries with a significant incidence of the new coronavirus.

"What you might hear today might be different from what you hear tomorrow. It might be different from what you hear the next day," Ms Berejiklian said.


NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told an estimates hearing that there was a "very big concern" about COVID-19 continuing into the flu season in winter.

"Flu is one thing you can manage by making sure you have your flu shot," he said, urging all residents to access the vaccine.

Dr Chant said the vast majority of patients had either travelled overseas or were close contacts of other confirmed cases.

"Those two categories are a positive reflection ... That is pleasing and we have to continue to focus on returning overseas travellers," Dr Chant said.