The Nine Border North East newsroom will continue to run with limited staff but local bulletins will replaced with a statewide service.

In a statement, Nine's national news and current affairs director, Darren Wick, said the measure was temporary.

"As a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Nine Network is taking steps to slow the spread of the virus and protect our teams and wider community by replacing Nine Regional News with metro bulletins as of 6.00pm tonight until further notice," he said.

"The decision to temporarily replace the Nine Regional News bulletins across Southern New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Darwin, regional Queensland, and regional Victoria aims to ensure full resources are dedicated to delivering one quality metro news service per state during this crisis.

"Nine Regional News presenters and reporters will support the broader Nine News team during this time, with limited reporters, operators and producers to remain in regional remits to continue breaking local news stories on the ground.

"This is a temporary measure to protect the Nine News team who are banding together to continue delivering Australians the latest developments in the COVID-19 emergency and beyond."

IN OTHER NEWS:

PREVIOUSLY:

A statewide news bulletin presented from Melbourne will replace Nine's Border North East news due to coronavirus fears.

In a statement the company emphasised no regional newsrooms had been axed.

"We are temporarily changing the way we operate," a spokesman said.

"The national health crisis has forced us to take urgent action to consolidate all our news and current affairs teams."

The spokesman said the network still had reporters, producers and camera operators in regional centres gathering local news.

MORE CORONAVIRUS NEWS:

"We are still supplying a nightly regional service - brief news and weather updates," he said.

"However, until the health crisis passes, the 6pm metro bulletins of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne will be broadcast statewide."

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