CANBERRA, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Australians were told to stay at home unless it is necessary to go out by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday night.
He said at the press conference that people should only go out for the "basics".
Further restrictions are also going to be put on indoor and outdoor gatherings.
Starting from Wednesday, Australians will also be banned from overseas travels, said Morrison, adding only the essential and necessary travels could be exempted.
More businesses and venues will be closed, including beauty, tanning and nail salons, galleries, museums, amusement parks, play centers, health clubs, fitness centers, swimming pools, as well as real estate auctions.
"Hairdressers and barber shops will continue to be able to provide those services but it is very important that they strictly manage the social distancing and limitations of the number of people in their premise. So that's four square meters per person. And on top of that, to restrict the amount of time a patron is in the premises to no more than 30 minutes and preferably less," he said.
Weddings will be limited to five people while funerals to ten observing the rules of social distancing, according to the PM.
"Barbecues of lots of friends or even family, extended family coming together to celebrate one year old birthday parties and all these sorts of things, we can't do those things now," he said.
However, he noted that the medical expert advice on schools has not changed. "It is safe to send your children to school." But some local governments have already allowed students to stay at home.
In a letter to parents, Katy Haire, Director-General of the Education Directorate in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), said "from Tuesday 24 March 2020 all ACT Public Schools are going pupil-free until the school holidays, due to begin on Friday 10 April 2020."
"ACT schools will remain open to students who absolutely need to attend," she said.
As of 3:00 p.m. local time Tuesday, there have been 2,136 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, 427 more from 24 hours ago, according to the Health Department of the Australian government.
