The Newcastle Knights' season-opening game against the New Zealand Warriors at Hunter Stadium on Saturday is poised to go ahead after the federal government delayed banning large public gatherings.
The ABC reported that Professor Brendan Murphy, the government's Chief Medial Officer, had told a meeting of state and federal leaders at the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) on Friday afternoon that public gatherings of 500 people or more should not go ahead due to the threat of the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has come under increasing pressure to ban such events after the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Friday and growing anxiety and action around the world.
Mr Morrison told a media conference on Friday afternoon, after the COAG meeting, that the government would from Monday "advise" that "non-essential, organised" gatherings of more than 500 people should not proceed.
He said this "early-stage action" and "stepped response" would not include schools or universities.
"This is a matter of scaling our response," Mr Morrison said. "There is absolute reason for calm."
He said that "in the future" fans could be locked out of games.
The government was showing an "abundance of caution" but community transmission was still at a "very low level".
Australian has about 130 confirmed COVID-19 cases, about half of them in NSW.
Mr Morrison said it was up to sports' governing bodies whether to lock out fans.
Knights boss Phil Gardner earlier urged fans to turn out in force at Saturday's game.
Mr Morrison came under fire from infection control expert Bill Bowtell on Friday morning after earlier urging Australians to attend sporting events over the weekend.
Professor Bowtell, from the University of NSW's Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity, said Mr Morrison was putting "politics ahead of public health".
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He said the NRL, AFL, Anzac Day ceremonies and other large gatherings should be cancelled.
"The NRL season should be cancelled. Anzac Day, there should be a big question about whether those ceremonies should be called off," he said.
"The Prime Minister can't know. Nobody can know who in that crowd at the NRL has coronavirus."
Professor Bowtell was a policy adviser to Labor prime minister Paul Keating from 1994 to 1996.
Mr Morrison, whose calming tone has been at odds with the dire warnings of other world leaders, including British PM Boris Johnson, had said before the COAG gathering that he was looking forward to attending Cronulla's NRL game against South Sydney on Saturday afternoon.
He said after the meeting that he still intended to attend the game and people should "go about their normal business".
Professor Nigel McMillan, director of the infectious diseases program at Griffith University, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the federal government should ban large gatherings and close schools and offices when the number of COVID-19 cases hit 250 nationally.
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