Australian public life could be constrained for another year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Scott Morrison warned on Friday, as the country’s most populous state mulled sending children to school in shifts. Australia has so far avoided the high numbers of coronavirus casualties reported around the world after closing its borders and imposing strict “social distancing” measures for the past month. Restaurants, bars and other “non-essential” businesses have closed and public gatherings of more than two people are banned under the threat of fines and even prison, measures that are expected to double the unemployment rate by mid-year. That guidance has been contradicted by several states and territories, which run schools, and brought a public backlash from parents and teachers concerned about exposure to the virus. For universities which rely on fees from international students, the international border closure could cost them as much as A$19 billion, Victoria University said in an analysis released on Friday, forecasting a further A$38 billion hit to the broader economy. Australia’s biggest single source of COVID-19 cases, accounting for around a third of recorded deaths, is a cruise ship, the Ruby Princess, which was allowed to disembark passengers without any health checks in Sydney last month.