As I understand it, its a SARS family virus. And as I understand it SARS viruses have a reproduction rate that is 2.5-6ish?
For the current strain the experts are estimating around 3 in reproduction rate.
The influenza seems to be between 1.2 and 2.4 in reproduction rate.
So the spread is massive, compared.
Its also completely new in a human population so we dont really know any details yet.
But there seems to be quite high numbers needing medical help to get through it, and then the numbers really matter.
Too many sick at the same time and death numbers going wild.
Lets hope that does not happen anywhere, but lets be as careful as possible til we actually know what this virus is.
And as far as I understand, testing is the only way to get new data.