© Image - Getty; Video - Newshub
Watch: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern discusses the coronavirus outbreak while in Fiji.
ACT leader David Seymour is urging the Prime Minister to return from her trip to Fiji over fears a "crisis is emerging" amid the global coronavirus outbreak.
"Make no mistake, a crisis is emerging. The situation has materially worsened since the Prime Minister left for Fiji," Seymour, MP for Epsom, said on Wednesday.
"The number of countries affected has grown to 37, the position taken by foreign governments has hardened, and the financial markets are starting to reflect a slowdown in the real economy.
"These are just the developments of the past 48 hours."
It comes as world stock markets tumbled amid investor concerns over the spreading virus, which has so far killed more than 2600 people worldwide and infected more than 80,000.
Jacinda Ardern is currently in Fiji where she met with her counterpart Frank Bainimarama to discuss matters including climate change, thwarting Pacific drug trade routes, and business cooperation.
Seymour said Fiji is a "nice place" but its economy is "20 times smaller than New Zealand's" making it "not an important trade partner and certainly not a place for the Prime Minister to spend three days as a crisis emerges".
He said the PM has "prioritised a trip to Fiji over dealing with coronavirus" when the New Zealand economy is "at a tipping point", which he said is when Ardern "should be here dealing with the potential fallout".
On Monday, Ardern confirmed that flights from China would continue to be banned for a further eight days amid the virus outbreak and that the policy would continue to be reviewed.
But the Prime Minister said on Tuesday the Government is not considering a ban on any other nations, including South Korea where more than 900 cases have been confirmed.
"That hasn't been in our consideration at this stage," Ardern said on Fiji. "Of course, we continue to monitor really where we're seeing the concentration of cases and that is still predominantly out of mainland China."
Ardern said mainland China has been the epicentre of human-to-human transmission of the virus, officially named COVID-19.
The virus originated in the sprawling capital of Hubei Province in central China with a population of more than 11 million people.
The Prime Minister said on Monday the Government is looking at the feasibility of an exemption for students from China to get around New Zealand's travel ban.
The Chinese ambassador to New Zealand Wu Xi held a press conference last week, questioning the need for the travel ban when it hasn't been recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
"Public health has to be our number one consideration," Ardern said on Tuesday.
"That means that tertiary institutions would have to be able to demonstrate how they would be able to fulfil some quite strict expectations from a public health perspective."
So far, no cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in New Zealand. The only New Zealanders to contract the virus were aboard a cruise ship in Japan.
The Prime Minister departs for Sydney on Thursday where she will meet with her Australian counterpart Scott Morrison.
RELATED: Photos: Coronavirus/COVID-19 outbreak
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China has confirmed human-to-human transmission of a new SARS-like coronavirus, named 2019-nCoV, linked to the pneumonia outbreak in the city of Wuhan in December 2019. So far, 80 people have died because of the disease and more than 2,700 people have been confirmed infected. China has allocated $144 million to combat the virus. Restrictions have been placed for travelers going to and coming from 13 Chinese cities, including Wuhan, Huanggang and Ezhou, with countries both in the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere initiating body temperature checks at airports and railway stations to stop those at risk of carrying the virus. Apart from China, countries such as Canada, France, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, South Korea, Japan and the U.S have reported cases of the infection.
(Pictured) A woman wearing a face mask walks out of a supermarket in Beijing, China, on Jan. 26, 2020.
Images captured by a thermographic imaging device to check the temperatures of arriving passengers at a quarantine station are seen on a monitor at the Oscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador, on Jan. 26.
A security force member stands in front of the pandemic center where a suspected case of coronavirus is under observation at Félix Houphouët Boigny International Airport in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Jan. 26.
Chinese tourists, some wearing masks as a preventative measure following the coronavirus outbreak, walk after arriving from Nusa Penida, in Bali, Indonesia, on Jan. 26.
A banner placed by Indian health workers is seen during a coronavirus information camp for travelers at an India-Nepal border crossing, near Siliguri, India, on Jan. 26.
(L-R) Sabine Hagenauer of the infection department at the 4th medical department of Kaiser Franz Josef Hospital, Michael Binder, medical director of the Vienna Hospital Association, and Judith Aberle of the department of virology, Medical University Vienna, address a press conference at Kaiser-Franz-Josef hospital in Vienna, Austria, on Jan. 26. A Chinese flight attendant has been quarantined in the hospital with symptoms of flu, in what authorities suspect is the first coronavirus case in the country.
A health worker checks the temperature of a woman entering a subway station in Beijing, China, on Jan. 25.
The emergency walk-in at Sunnybrook Hospital, where a patient is being treated in isolation for what Canadian health officials call the first presumptive confirmed case of coronavirus, is seen in Toronto, Canada, on Jan. 25.
Dozens of diggers work to build a new hospital in Wuhan, China, on Jan. 25. Due to the large number of infected people, the government has decided to establish a temporary 1,000-bed hospital, which will be completed by Feb. 3.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam addresses a press conference in Hong Kong on Jan. 25. Announcing a citywide virus emergency, Lam ordered the cancellation of all official trips to mainland China and school shutdown till Feb. 17.
A police officer stands guard in front of the closed gate of Lama Temple in Beijing on Jan. 25. A notice reads that the temple is closed due to safety concerns following the outbreak of a new coronavirus.
Security personnel wearing hazardous material suits measure body temperatures of passenger at the entrance of a subway station in Beijing on Jan. 25.
A disinfection worker wearing protective gear sprays anti-septic solution in a train amid rising public concerns over the spread of coronavirus, at SRT train station in Seoul, South Korea, on Jan. 24.
Bandaranaike airport officials direct tourists after they went through a temperature scanner, in Katunayake, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 24.
A woman wearing a protective face mask delivers a leaflet on coronavirus in Hong Kong, on Jan 24.
Sanitation workers spray disinfectant, as a precaution against coronavirus, at Suseo Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Jan. 24.
A passenger holds up an Australian Government document pertaining to the coronavirus as passengers arrive at Sydney International Airport in Australia on Jan. 23.
Locals wear face masks while browsing in a store ahead of the Lunar New Year, in Taipei, Taiwan, on Jan. 23, 2020. A day earlier, Taiwan stopped sending tour groups to, or receiving tour groups from Wuhan, China, due to concerns over the cornonavirus outbreak.
Passengers arriving from China are screened at Kolkata International Airport, India, on Jan. 22, 2020. Screening centers have been set up in the Indian cities of Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Cochin apart from three airports at Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata to screen for the coronavirus.
Hospital staff wash the emergency entrance of Wuhan Medical Treatment Center on Jan. 22.
A young girl wears a protective mask as her mother pushes her on a suitcase to board a train at the Beijing Railway station before the annual Spring Festival, on Jan. 21.
People walk next to signage detailing hygienic practices to prevent the spread of the coronavirus at the Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, China, on Jan. 21.