Watching the coronavirus emergency unfold in Australia from lockdown in Ezhou, China, Ulladulla man Tim McLean, 52, fears not enough is being done to prepare for the pandemic.
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"It concerns me that in Australia it's been in our hospital and aged care facilities. It shows they really haven't done a great job of getting on top of it, the government," he says.
"They left it a bit late. They've known about this for five or six weeks and they've sort of mucked around like they did with our bushfires."
The 52-year-old man is particularly concerned for his daughter, Jess, who mans the front desk of an Ulladulla club, where she handles the IDs of visitors and patrons.
They last saw each other just before Christmas.
He also believes the evacuation of Australians caught in the outbreak in Hubei was poorly handled.
He was caught in the coronavirus hot zone in mid-January. His partner, Xu Qiong, 38, was in the process of obtaining a partnership visa when the outbreak struck. He was not prepared to leave Xu behind and asked for her visa application to be expedited.
By the time it was granted just before the third evacuation flight, it was too late.
"They sent me an email saying I was on their waiting list, and at 5 o'clock on the afternoon of the flight leaving, they sent me a confirmation saying I could be on the flight with my partner."
Ezhou is part of the Wuhan megacity and was totally locked down when the third flight was due to leave.
"I'm 50 kilometres from Wuhan airport. So it's literally Nowra from Ulladulla away, you know. We weren't able to leave the limits of the city because of all the roadblocks and quarantine measures that had been put in place. So unfortunately there was no way I could get the third flight. I tried hard. We tried everybody. However no one was prepared to leave the city because they wouldn't have been able to re-enter it."
He has been largely confined to the small apartment he shares with Xu and her 10-year-old son for three weeks as government measures to contain the virus have ramped up.
"I'm lucky enough to be able to go out and clean up the outside of the apartment complex," he says. He asked for permission to do this because rubbish services had stopped and litter was building up.
"I go out and do my bit and keep motivated and get oustide but everybody is stuck inside."
Food is ordered every four days through a network of shops organised by the government and delivered.
"It consists of vegetables, there's no rice left, there's no flour left, there's no toilet paper, things like that. We're getting good food. I'm not disappointed by any means with the food."
Tim is impressed with the way the Chinese government is handling the crisis.
"Between Wuhan, Ezhou and the Yellow City across the Yangtze River, there's 30 million people. We're all in the same boat, we're all locked down at the same time. It's a very big task for this government to make sure everbody's fed, so they're doing a good job."
When some shopowners were caught profiteering as demand soared, they were arrested.
He says the lockdown measures are slowing the spread of the virus, although the scale of mortality is still hard to comprehend.
"The numbers have definitely dropped in people getting sick. They were skyrocketing there for the first few weeks. In the two days prior to this we've only had about 80 deaths.
"Out of 30 million people the numbers are pretty low. The government's extraordinary measures with this have been really effective. We're in lockdown to stop other people getting to us and us getting to other people."
He believes more extreme measures should be adopted in Australia.
"That sounds harsh but the reality is people are dying from it. It spreads and nobody knows exactly how long this incubates for. Nobody knows enough about this to be lax about it and let people self isolate.
"There's a lot of people who have the virus and don't know it and don't show any signs of it. They're carriers and that's why we're in the situation we're in. That's why we're locked up until the government get a handle on exactly what's going on."
His daughter, Jess, says she's distressed knowing he's in the eipicentre of the outbreak. She plans to take him surfing the day he returns.
"He's a very active person, very positive, and he loves surfing. Obviously, he can't do that where he is."
