Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy says while he understands that keeping schools open is a "vexed issue for parents", the cost of closing schools outweighs the benefits.
Despite the rapid rate of coronavirus infections across Australia, schools have remained open nationally.
On Sunday, the Victorian government announced it will end the school term on Monday and will take medical advice about whether it is safe to re-open them before the commencement of term two.
Professor Murphy told reporters it is "very, very uncommon"for children to present with coronavirus symptoms.
"There are downsides of children not going to school. They can practise reasonably good social distancing and hand hygiene and other practises in the school," he said.
"And this, as we have said, is our long haul measure. And the impact on children of potentially missing several months of school is material.
"But these risks benefit calculations are assessed on a regular, daily basis. The expert panel that I convene for two hours on Sunday came to the conclusion that the risks of children not going to school were greater than the risks of them staying at school".
"That position may change."
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