No, they often come out during the day seeking a new shelter if something happened to their home, or if they are greatly in need of water.
True possums, which are those found in Australia, do not have rabies as there is no rabies in Australia.
Opossums of North America, a quite different animal, have body temperatures that are generally too low to harbour the rabies virus, although there are always exceptions.
Note that when threatened, opossums will often "play possum" mimicking dead or sick animals - to the point of mimicking the appearance of having rabies - even if they are not infected. Since they are primarily nocturnal, when people encounter them during the day the opossum is more likely to feel threatened and thus act sick. This may be one of the reasons that people think the possums they see during the day are infected with rabies.
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