Prime Minister, Scott Morrison says schools will remain open amid COVID-19

"The health advice that I'm willing to follow for my kids is the same advice I'm asking all other parents around the country to follow."

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressed the concerned and worried parents of Australia in a televised press conference on Wednesday, 18 March, 2020.

Due to the global coronavirus pandemic many parents are calling for school closures across the country, however Scott Morrison has said, at this stage, it will not be happening.

“The health advice is that schools should remain open. That is the health advice. This is what Singapore has done. Singapore has been one of the more successful countries. In Singapore the schools are open. In Singapore, they have been quite effective in managing and limiting this virus. The health advice is that schools should remain open,” he told the country.

“There are a number of reasons for this. The first one is the virus operates very differently among young people. Manifestation amongst younger people presents a different health challenge to the broader population,” he continued.

(ABC)

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Australian schools will remain open amid the coronavirus pandemic.

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PM Scott Morrison went on to say that as a parent he is comfortable sending his children to school and he asked for the communnity to also be on board with this advice from health professionals.

“In terms of the health and welfare of our children and many of us here are parents and obviously we are concerned about the health of our kids. The advice that I’m happy to follow for my kids is the advice I’m asking all other parent to follow. We all love our kids and there’s nothing we wouldn’t do for them. As a father, I’m happy for my kids to go to school.

“There is only one reason your kids shouldn’t be going to school and that is if they are unwell. As parents you are in the best position to know if your children are unwell. Don’t leave it to the teacher to work out when they arrive or the school administrator or whoever is on drop off. Make sure if your child is unwell, you keep your child out of school. That is your responsibility.”

(news.com.au)

PM Scott Morrison says, “As a father, I’m happy for my kids to go to school.”

The PM went on to say that the COVID-19 pandemic is not a quick fix and this it is a health crisis that we will be dealing with for what will likely be the next six months or so.

“Whatever we do, we’ve got to do for at least six months. That means the disruption that would occur from the closures of schools around this country would be severe. What do I mean by severe? Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost, if not more. The impact on the availability of health workers would be a 30 per cent impact. That will put people’s lives at risk.”

“Let’s keep our heads as parents in this and do the right thing by the county and by each other. There is a national public interest in keeping school’s open and our advice is that is not being done at the detriment of the health of any child. If that became different then premiers and chief ministers would certainly come to a different view but right now that is the advice and we need to ensure that when we are putting these scalable and sustainable measures in place that we are doing things that improve the situation, not worsen the situation, and improve our capacity to deal with this.”