Scott Morrison personally intervened to ensure 600 catholic schools across New South Wales stayed open as they planned an unprecedented coroanvirus shutdown.
It comes as the prime minister defended his decision to keep Australian schools opens, after critics warned it could leave families vulnerable to the coronavirus.
After a meeting with health officials on Tuesday, Mr Morrison called the Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher to ask him to reconsider closing 595 schools.
Earlier this week, catholic dioceses decided it would close its schools – but after the intervention they will now remain open.
The prime minister warned that any action the government takes to combat the disease will need to be in place for the next six months.
Scott Morrison (pictured, far right) explained he agreed with his wife Jenny (in sunglasses) that their two children Abbey and Lily should still go to school
This would mean students wouldn’t go back to school until at least term three.
It comes as the deadly respiratory infection, which originated in a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, killed a sixth person in Australia, with 568 confirmed cases.
‘What you do, you’ve got to keep doing for the next six months,’ Mr Morrison told Sky News.
‘Shut them down, they won’t open again. And that means your children will miss what is effectively a whole year of their education.
‘Now if there’s not a good health reason to do that and risk the child’s education or cause them rather significant economic cost…you should keep the schools open.
‘And that’s why I’ve formed such a strong view on this.’
He insisted that social distancing and proper hand sanitation was enough to keep children and families safe, and would be scaled up in the future.
It comes as several other affected countries, including America and areas of the UK, announced their decision to shut down schools and universities.
Students across Australia are being encouraged to carry on going to school (pictured, a school in Cobargo in January)
But Mr Morrison insisted the government were following top medical advice, which says it is safer for children to stay at home.
Kids in China who have contracted coronavirus, of which there are very few, did not contract it at school.
Instead, they caught it at home or elsewhere in the community.
‘The health advice that we have is that the coronavirus has a very limited impact on younger people, particularly children.
A woman is seen crossing the road wearing a face mask in Sydney’s CBD on Tuesday (pictured) as the country enters lockdown
Epping Boy’s High School in Sydney (pictured) was forced to close earlier in March after a student tested positive for coronavirus
‘And when you look at what has happened in China, the rate of infection in those areas is around 2.4 per cent.
‘And in the majority of cases they contracted it not at the school, but at their homes and with parents and in the broader community.
‘So the health advice is that by keeping schools open and children going to school, this is not a risk to parents or kids.’
He also raised concerns that if schools were to close, it could lead to a shortage of health workers – as they would be forced to stay home and care for their children.
‘If we close schools down, where there isn’t a health reason for doing it, the dislocation and disruption that would cause more broadly can be frankly very dangerous,’ he went on.
‘It could compromise about 30 per cent our health workforce, and it would further disrupt what happens in the economy, – and the cost there is tens of thousands of jobs.’
On Wednesday, officials in Scotland and Wales announced they would close all schools, as staff isolations due to the disease left them without enough teachers.
He also explained that there was not easy fix for the crisis, which has infected most countries around the world and sparked global travel bans.
‘There seems to be a view … that somehow you can just turn the tap off for two weeks and all of a sudden we’ve got through the coronavirus, that’s just not true,’ Mr Morrison said.
‘People who are thinking about it in those terms are really not understanding the scale of what’s happening here.
‘Six months is in indicative and I certainly don’t think at this point that it will be any less than that.’
A woman wearing a facemask is seen admiring Sydney Harbour on March 13 (pictured) as visitor numbers plummet to top tourist attractions
But others believe the policy is putting families at risk of the virus, and are choosing to keep their children at home.
New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has appealed to shut schools to reopen, so it doesn’t send mixed messages to parents.
‘We would prefer that everybody is absolutely on the same page when it comes to all the stakeholders in education,’ she said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) said schools should stay open
‘And indications we’ve had from different sectors of the education system is that in the main everybody supports our decision.
‘There are some, very few, that do not. But there is no rationale for closing down schools. Every bit of advice we’ve received across the nation in NSW, from health experts, is that schools should remain open.
The Willoughby Girls High School in Sydney (pictured) was closed on March 9 after a 12-year-old pupil was diagnosed with coronavirus