Australia's coronavirus restrictions could be eased as early as next Friday

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australians deserve "an early mark" after announcing the National Cabinet will decide whether to ease coronavirus restrictions next Friday.

"We need to restart our economy, we need to restart our society, we can't keep Australia under the doona," Mr Morrison told a press conference following today's National Cabinet.

"Australians deserve an early mark for the work that they have done."

Mr Morrison said the National Cabinet will largely set out how restrictions on businesses will be eased and under what guidelines that will happen.

"When we start opening up businesses again that is going to require risks," Mr Morrison said.

When asked about gyms, Mr Morrison said he would not prejudice individual decisions before the National Cabinet has come to a decision.

He warned eased restriction does not mean the virus is over and doubled down on asking Australians to download the COVID-Safe App, saying it will help states relax restrictions more readily.

"Currently, 3.5 million Australians have downloaded the COVID-Safe app, but there needs to be millions more if we ease restrictions," Mr Morrison said.

"It's like not putting on sunscreen to go out in the blazing sun.

"If we let people out into an opened economy, we need to ensure that the appropriate protections are in place and we need people to download the app."

The Prime Minister has not put a number on how many COVID-Safe App downloads are required for restrictions to be eased, simply saying the more the better.

"The higher the number of people who have downloaded the app, the safer you are," he said.

If National Cabinet decides to ease restriction, Mr Morrison said that it would be a forward moving process.

"We don't want this to be a start-stop process and we don't want the decision to have to be reversed," he said.

He reinforced social distancing measures will remain as long as coronavirus is a threat.

"The principles of social distancing I think has really started to sink in," he said.

"Those principles will have to remain. As long as the coronavirus is out there, that is your best defence."