Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday said that the country was still “many weeks away” from easing COVID-19 restrictions.

The National Cabinet, established on March 13, which comprises Morrison and state and territory leaders, is scheduled to meet this week to “look at the sort of prerequisites”, according to the media report.

In the early hours of the day, Morrison said that measures introduced to slow the spread of the virus, including mandatory quarantine periods, social distancing rules and business closures, would not be repealed for “many weeks.”

“We are doing a lot of work over the last week or so in particular to look at the sort of prerequisites, the things that need to happen, before you can start considering that”, Morrison added.

“The immediate response capacity to outbreaks, wherever they might come, we’ve got to be able to slap down on these things very hard if we’re to look at easing of restrictions”, he further said.

“So we are looking at how that can be achieved. But I wouldn’t want to mislead people. We’re still many weeks to go on this,” the Prime Minister added.

The spread of the COVID-19 in Australia has slowed significantly in April.

Last week, Australian Parliament passed the government’s wage subsidy scheme, deemed by PM Morrison as “the biggest economic lifeline” in the country’s history, as a response to deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The country has so far reported 6,494 confirmed coronavirus cases with 61 deaths.

On April 3, the states have closed their borders in an effort to curb the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, the northeastern state of Queensland also tightened border restrictions with its neighbour New South Wales (NSW), denying entry to anyone without a valid reason.

In March, the country had announced a nearly US$100 million boost in funding to tackle domestic violence after support services reported a spike in coronavirus-related family abuse.

Earlier, PM Morrison said the Aus$150 million boost — part of an additional Aus$1.1 billion in health-related spending announced— would be spent on telephone support services for both domestic violence victims and abusers.