Australia’s first drive-through coronavirus testing service has opened in Adelaide as the Federal Government today reveals a new $2.4 billion health package.

As world experts warned of a global pandemic “threat”, the State Government was on Tuesday night preparing a multimillion-dollar economic package, SA Health held a crisis summit and the AFL revealed empty arena con cerns.

media_camera Nurses at the new drive-through coronavirus testing station at the Repat Hospital. Picture: AAP / Brenton Edwards

With authorities braced for a surge in potential local cases, the new car service was opened at the Repatriation Health Precinct in Adelaide’s south.

The service, the second of its type to launch in the world, will test up to six patients an hour between 8am-4.30pm on weekdays after a GP referral.

In a heightened response to the mounting global crisis, SA Health officials say it will stop the virus spreading while plans are in place for similar service in the Adelaide’s north.

SA Pathology, which faces staff cutbacks and a privatisation threat next month unless it cuts budgets, is operating the service on top of its usual tests.

Almost 400 patients have been tested for the disease at dedicated Royal Adelaide Hospital, Flinders Medical Centre and Lyell McEwin Hospital virus clinics.

media_camera A nurse takes a swab from the first person to use the drive-through coronavirus test station. Picture: AAP / Brenton Edwards

A new clinic will open at the Women’s and Children’s hospital within days. The four local patients with the virus are in a stable condition in hospital while a further five people were under investigation on Tuesday night and awaiting test results.

In other developments:

THE AFL revealed plans to play football matches in empty stadiums.

PREMIER Steven Marshall postponed an important US trade mission.

STATE Cabinet is considering a “very serious” jobs and economic package worth “hundreds of millions of dollars”.

THE World Health Organisation warned a “threat of a pandemic” is “very real.”

SCHOOL closures across Australia “will become the norm”, federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said.

On Tuesday, SA Health hosted a crisis-scenario planning meeting involving some of the state’s top medicos , senior bureaucrats and clinicians that “war gamed” different patient situations.

Government documents stated the exercise would help SA Health be “better prepared for the possible and predicted impacts of COVID-19”.

Exercises were based on overseas virus experiences and how the state could handle a dramatic increase in cases.

SA Health’s Chief Public Health Officer, Associate Professor Nicola Spurrier, said on Tuesday no decisions had been made to ban local major events but added. “What we are doing is looking at (planning) from a … system lens across SA Health. “The reason to get people together is to look at our capacity as a health system,” she said.

“We are very carefully going through the steps of what if … in terms of the number of people infected.”

Mr Marshall said officials wanted to “make sure we minimise the (virus) impact” to “get ahead of the game”.

“I am not going to be hanging up the shingles for South Australia,” he said. “We want to make sure we are as prepared as possibly can be. We … are not going to be immune.”

media_camera Nurses speak to the first patient to use the new drive-through coronavirus test station. Picture: AAP / Brenton Edwards

Premier Steven Marshall postponed his planned US trade mission on Tuesday night amid concerns over the growing coronavirus crisis and to ensure all measurs were in place for the state’s fightback.

Mr Marshall was due to leave on Friday for a series of high-level meetings in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Houston and Austin, Texas.

He was due to meet officials from organisations including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as well as film bosses, defence leaders and cyber experts.

But a disappointed Premier announced he would postpone the “very important” trip as he ensured the state’s health plans to battle coronavirus were in place. He has taken high-level medical and travel advice but said he also wanted to implement an economic stimulus package.

Officials hope the trip, which was also to include attending the now cancelled South by Southwest (SXSW) technology, music and cultural festival in Austin, Texas and opening a new US-based State Government trade office, may occur next week. Aides were on Tuesday night exploring whether the trip would be “significantly cut” from a planned 11 days to less than a week.

“We can’t stop our state from operating,” the Premier said on Tuesday. “But what we can do is to make sure we are as protected as possible.”

Mr Marshall said he had an “added responsibility”.

“I wanted to be assured before I set foot out of South Australia that our preparation is the best in the world and … our stimulus is out,” he said.

“We have to get our economy moving. I don’t want put the handbrake on South Australia. I want to be on the front foot selling the great investment opportunities to the rest of the world. I won’t be leaving until all the necessary preparation is locked down and in place.” He has said his last US trade trip helped secure the Mortal Kombat film deal.