We were waiting for the green light of a negative test result. But, given the nature of the epidemic, we were also waiting, it seemed, for a higher authority to comfort us and make us all believe that everything really will be fine, and soon.

Those in Hong Kong, where I worked in The New York Times office for a few weeks, were no stranger to life under the coronavirus — face masks are everywhere and a run on toilet paper had already come to shops.

But the panic is rising in Australia, the United States and in several other countries. With the World Health Organization officially declaring a pandemic this week, news updates felt more like the plot of a film than reality itself. “Contagion,” it seems, was well worth the rewatch: Travel between the United States and Europe has been suspended; the NBA canceled its season and Disneyland is closing its doors.

I feel grateful to live in a country with a public health system where testing is both free and relatively straightforward. Australia has not (yet) experienced the degree of challenge countries like China and Italy have faced, as Tom Hanks — who announced this week that he had tested positive while shooting a film in Queensland — now knows.