As the nation prepares to shut its borders, Australians are being told to keep their distance from each other to stem the spread of coronavirus.
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And stricter rules have been put in place for indoor gatherings that will affect places like restaurants, pubs and cinemas.
With the country's death toll rising to seven, indoor venues hosting non-essential gatherings will now have to make sure there are four square metres - about the size of a playground handball court - of space per person.
"I know it means a lot of change for a lot of venues, whether they be cafes or restaurants or clubs or any of these other places of public gathering, including in this building here," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.
"I know these rules will take some time for people to get used to, but I would ask people to move as quickly as they can."
Outdoor events of more than 500 people were already banned and indoor gatherings restricted to 100.
The tougher rules came with stronger language from chief medical officer Brendan Murphy, who said everyone should be distancing themselves from every fellow Australian where possible.
"It's no point having a gathering of 20 people if it's in a tiny room and you're all together," he told reporters.
Social distancing means keeping a metre-and-a-half away from others, good hand hygiene, and staying home from work or the general community if you are unwell.
"There will be cases of community contact where it's not suspected and they might just get a sniffle or a cold, the sort of thing that many of us have soldiered through and gone to work in recent years - we can't do that any more," Professor Murphy said.
"There is a risk that if we don't do what every one of us has to do as our civic duty to control this spread, it will grow significantly greater."
People have also been warned they must take quarantining seriously if they have returned from overseas.
"This is not an advisory," Professor Murphy told reporters.
"This is your civic duty to your fellow Australians to stay home for that entire 14 days ... no exceptions."
An 81-year-old NSW woman died on Thursday night, bringing the state's death toll to six and the national total to seven.
More than 800 people have been infected with the virus in Australia, with almost 50 now recovered.
Health officials have relaxed the criteria for who will be tested for the virus.
It now includes aged care and health care workers with influenza-like illnesses and anyone presenting to hospital with pneumonia, along with people who have symptoms and are recently returned from overseas or have known contact with someone who has the disease.
Australia's borders were closing to non-residents from 9pm on Friday, while international flights leaving the country were grounded earlier this week.
People have also been urged to reconsider non-essential domestic travel and leaders will consider further health advice on this when they next meet on Tuesday, ahead of school holidays starting in early April.
They will also look at "localised responses" and what would trigger any scaled-up response needed to shut down virus outbreaks in particular suburbs or towns.
Travel into remote indigenous communities has been restricted while visitors to jails will be curtailed and in some cases banned.
Schools are staying open but restrictions have been placed on visitors to aged care homes to protect the elderly from contracting the virus.
The federal government is working on a major boost to its economic stimulus plans, which will include income support for casuals who lose hours or jobs as their industry is shuttered and for sole traders.
It will put an extra $444.6 million into aged care, mostly for facilities to keep staff.
Banks on Friday announced small businesses impacted by the coronavirus crisis will be able to defer loan repayments for six months.
The move comes after the Reserve Bank and the government gave banks access to $105 billion for low-interest loans to small business.
State and territory leaders are now looking at ways to provide relief for tenants, including developing model rules to apply to hardship cases.
The federal budget has been postponed from May until October 6 and state budgets will similarly be pushed back.
Australian Associated Press
