The Newcastle Knights' season-opening home game against the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday will go ahead, but other Hunter events are off as the nation grapples with the coronavirus outbreak.
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Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton confirmed he had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus as the number of cases in Australia jumped from 122 on Thursday to 197 at 6.30am on Saturday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced at a media conference in Sydney on Friday afternoon that from Monday the government would "advise" against "non-essential, organised" gatherings of more than 500 people, but he still planned to watch his beloved Cronulla Sharks on Saturday at Stadium Australia.
He later announced he would not attend the game.
The advice against gatherings did not cover schools, universities or transport, but the PM urged Australians to rethink non-essential overseas travel.
Newcastle Writers Festival promptly cancelled its annual event in early April.
The Under The Southern Stars music festival, featuring international acts Live, Bush and Stone Temple Pilots at Newcastle's Foreshore Park on April 19, was postponed, most likely until next year.
The Very Popular Theatre Company cancelled, "under the direction of Prime Minister Scott Morrison", its upcoming season of Chess - The Musical at the Civic Theatre but hoped to reschedule it.
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Northern NSW Football called off Women's Premier League games between Broadmeadow Magic and Thornton this weekend because a Magic player was unwell and awaiting test results.
"Unfortunately, the player has been in close contact with other senior members of the WPL Program at a recent club event," the association said in a media statement.
Newcastle Permanent called off its Cinema Under the Stars screening in King Edward Park on Saturday.
In Sydney, the Royal Easter Show was cancelled and Sydney Writers Festival suspended ticket sales.
The Knights game survived because the government's as yet undefined "advice" against mass gatherings does not kick in until Monday.
Mr Morrison said at his media conference, before Mr Dutton's positive test, that he intended to watch his Sharks play Labor leader Anthony Albanese's South Sydney Rabbitohs on Saturday.
Mr Dutton attended a federal cabinet meeting with Mr Morrison and senior government ministers on Tuesday.
Knights chief executive Phil Gardner urged fans to come out in force to support the team at Hunter Stadium.
But national sporting codes are bracing for the likelihood that fans will be locked out of games from Monday.
The NRL said round-one games would go ahead with fans but round two would be played behind closed doors.
The Newcastle Jets' away game in Adelaide on Sunday will go ahead after Football Federation Australia announced that A-League and W-League games were still on, but FFA did not rule out playing in empty stadiums.
Mr Morrison had been under pressure to immediately ban mass public gatherings after the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne was axed on Friday morning and governments and sports bodies around the world continued to shut down competitions.
He said there was evidence of "greater community transmission" but the government would adopt a "scaleable response" on the advice of state and federal chief medical officers.
The Department of Health says Australia had 197 confirmed COVID-19 cases at 6.30am on Saturday, up from 122 on Thursday. About half of the cases are in NSW and one in the Hunter.
"We have low rates of this virus and the number of cases that have presented, but we've always known that the number of cases will rise," Mr Morrison told the media after a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting on Friday.
He said Australia would "get through this" with the help of a "world-class health system" and people should "go about their normal business".
Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy, who addressed state and federal leaders at the COAG meeting, said Australia had remained "ahead of the curve" when it came to the virus outbreak.
"We're still not saying there is a significant risk at all to the Australian community, but all the international evidence suggests that if you have some community transmission the way in which it can be spread more rapidly is in very large events," he said.
"You might only have one or two people at a very large event who might be carrying the virus, and the chances of it being spread at those large events accelerates the rate of progression of this virus."
He said the advice against large gatherings from Monday was a "precautionary measure on the basis of the numbers slowly increasing" this week.
"We feel that they will be at the point over the coming weeks that it's time to take precautionary advance measures to limit those large events."
Asked why mass gatherings would be allowed until Monday, Professor Murphy said: "We think that by that time we will start to see again a few more cases of community transmission.
"There's no immediacy about this, but we need to get ahead of the curve, and so the recommendation was Monday and the premiers and the Prime Minister agreed with that.
"It wouldn't have mattered if they'd made a decision one or two days either side. It was felt that that was a reasonable time to progress."
Mr Morrison's decision to delay banning public events could backfire politically if the numbers of infections and deaths rise rapidly.
His soothing tone was at odds with the dire warnings of other world leaders, including British PM Boris Johnson, who said many families would face "losing loved ones before their time" and described the virus outbreak as the "worst public health crisis for a generation".
Newcastle Labor MP Sharon Claydon said Mr Morrison's explanation for delaying banning mass gatherings "raised more questions than it answered".
Mr Morrison came under fire from infection control expert Bill Bowtell on Friday morning after the Prime Minister seemingly urged Australians to attend sporting events this weekend in a public address on Thursday.
Professor Bowtell, from the University of NSW's Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity, said Mr Morrison was putting "politics ahead of public health".
He said the NRL, AFL, Anzac Day ceremonies and other large gatherings should be cancelled.
"The NRL season should be cancelled. Anzac Day, there should be a big question about whether those ceremonies should be called off," he said.
"The Prime Minister can't know. Nobody can know who in that crowd at the NRL has coronavirus."
Professor Bowtell was a policy adviser to Labor prime minister Paul Keating from 1994 to 1996.
Professor Nigel McMillan, director of the infectious diseases program at Griffith University, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the federal government should ban large gatherings and close schools and offices when the number of COVID-19 cases hit 250 nationally.
Within hours, the nation was close to reaching that threshold.
The virus outbreak led Flight Centre to announce that it was closing 100 stores, and Virgin Australia said one of its cabin crew had tested positive but did not disclose what flights she had been on.
Hunter schools have been cancelling or postponing overseas trips.
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