The City of Launceston Council will close the Launceston Leisure and Aquatic Centre and Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
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Both facilities will be closed to the public from Wednesday, with the council to review its position in two weeks.
This Thursday's council meeting will also be moved from the council chambers to the much larger Town Hall Reception Room, to allow for better social distancing measures.
Mayor Albert van Zetten said the council had made the decisions as a precautionary measure against community transmission of the coronavirus, as well as in response to reduced demand from the community.
"The City of Launceston is actively monitoring the outbreak of coronavirus disease, or COVID-19, and is liaising with health authorities on our response," Cr van Zetten said.
"The health and safety of our community and our employees are our highest priorities.
"There are some steps that we, as a local council, can take in the interests of the health and wellbeing of our community and employees.
"The temporary closure of these facilities is among those steps, and we've been consulting with the Local Government Association of Tasmania and other councils - like the City of Hobart - in reaching our decision."
Cr van Zetten said employees at both QVMAG and the Launceston Leisure and Aquatic Centre would continue to work at the facilities, undertaking maintenance, planning and other projects like the QVMAG collections audit.
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"We are proposing to extend all current aquatic centre memberships commensurate with the duration of the closure, and we'll be reaching out to our membership base in coming days," he said
"We will also be working with the private operators of the commercial hospitality businesses that are housed both within QVMAG and the Launceston Leisure and Aquatic Centre, to try as much as possible to reduce impacts on them."
He said the council was in the process of making other changes to its operations.
Council has increased cleansing patrols at public facilities, introduced staggered starting times for shifts, was promoting relevant public health information to its workforce, and exploring work from home arrangements for staff.
It has set up two internal working groups; an incident response team and a business continuity planning team.
"This is a rapidly changing situation and we're seeking to be proactive in reducing risks in our community, as well as planning to continue to provide important services to residents," Cr van Zetten said.
"We may be required to make further difficult decisions in the weeks and months ahead, in the interests of public health and safety.
"We'll continue to keep the community informed as we work through those challenges."
