1st Ld Writethru: More venues to be closed, public gatherings limited to two persons in Australia

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CANBERRA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- More venues in Australia are to be closed to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the country, while more stringent restrictions are put to public gatherings, said Australian Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison on Sunday evening.

In addition to the institutions and businesses already closed last week, more public areas are to follow suit, including public playgrounds, outside gyms and skate parks. They are to be closed from Monday.

Both indoor and outdoor public gatherings are limited to two people, but "states and territories will determine whether they proceed to make this an enforceable limit," according to Morrison.

As a result, group boot camps are no longer allowed, while one-on-one personal training sessions are still permitted, according to Morrison at the second press conference on Sunday.

Exceptions to the limit include people of the same household going out together, funerals with a maximum of 10 people, weddings with a maximum of five people, as well as family units.

People are again strongly advised to stay at home unless shopping for essentials, for medical care or compassionate needs, to exercise following the new rule and to go to work and education "if you cannot work or learn remotely," he said.

Morrison also advised that those aged over 70, with a chronic illness aged over 60, and Indigenous Australians over the age of 50 should stay at home.

"What we are encouraging elderly residents to do is to stay home as much as is practicable," said the PM. "Should they need support then I'm sure they can get support through their community or others and I'm sure they could even ring their local MP."

He also noted that the National Cabinet agreed to a moratorium on evictions over the next six months for commercial and residential tenancies in financial distress who are unable to meet their commitments due to the impact of coronavirus.

"My message to tenants, particularly commercial tenants and commercial landlords, is a very straightforward one," he said.

"We need you to sit down, talk to each other and work this out about looking at the businesses which have been closed, businesses that may have had a significant reduction in their revenues and we need landlords and tenants to sit down and come up with arrangements that enable them to get through this crisis..."

According to the Health Department of the Australian government, as of 3:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, there have been 3,966 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.

"Towards this time last week, the rate of daily increase was up around 25 to 30 percent," said Morrison. "Today's rate of increase it actually has fallen to nine percent."

"But there are no guarantees about how that goes forward," he continued. "We need to continue to do the things that we've committed ourselves to do to save lives and save livelihoods and I want to thank Australians for their strong support and growing support for the measures that are necessary to do just that."

Earlier on Sunday Morrison and Health Minister Greg Hunt announced the 1.1-billion-Australian dollar (677.9-million-U.S. dollar) package, which includes funding for mental health and domestic violence support, emergency food services and Medicare, Australia's universal health care system.

The government also ramped-up its public communications about the virus, launching a smartphone application and official WhatsApp messaging service, which Morrison said would enable the government "to talk to Australians in terms of basic health advice." Enditem

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