Telehealth and telephone triage services will be deployed in the event of a large outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) amid plans to direct the majority of people with mild symptoms to respiratory clinics and away from hospital EDs, Australia's chief medical officer says.

Planning is also underway to make testing for the virus available through private pathology practices, with public health laboratories having tested well over 10,000 Australians so far, the vast majority of them negative.