OPINION: The New Zealand frontline against a deadly outbreak is a clipboard and a printed information sheet. No passenger tracing, no targeted screening, no temperature checks. The Prime Minister says we're "rolling out everything we can." It looks a little weak.

Consider this: there is a very low chance of a hijacking in New Zealand. Yet, every single one of us who get on a jet go through mass screening. My laptop gets taken out; if I'm on an international flight, my toothpaste volume is inspected. Small risk: mass screening.

However, we have a situation where we're "highly likely" to have a case here, and what do we see on the 6pm news? A few people in hi-visibility vests handing out info cards. Welcome to New Zealand coronavirus, walk on in. Don't worry about declaring.

It is bizarre. After no checks for coronavirus, passengers then continue through the airport where they fill in a double-sided form about whether they're bringing in food. The biosecurity officer has access to more than 40 pieces of information on the card, including the list of countries we've been to. What a contrast. No questions about a deadly virus, more than 40 questions about food and biosecurity risks.

The Prime Minister said yesterday "we are really rolling out everything we can" to fight the disease. That's simply not true. Passengers were left dumbfounded at the airport last night, one from China telling Newshub: "I expected to get checked, I expected to get pulled aside and asked where exactly you were and how long you were there for."

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If we were doing everything we can, we would be giving all passengers from China an individual health declaration - where contact details would be taken. We would be identifying everyone that had been in a risk area, then further screening with thermal imaging. This is a camera people can walk past to accurately measure if someone has a temperature.

I'm not arguing for mass screening. I think we should establish who are high-risk passengers, and go through more of a thorough process with them, at least gathering some contact details. This is targeted screening.

The Ministry of Health argues mass screening wouldn't work, because it would pull up too many people that didn't have Coronavirus, and the World Health Organisation isn't recommending it yet. But we need to do more than hand out pamphlets. We are better than this.

We have mass screening in aviation security, and it pulls up lots of people. Trained professionals quickly establish if we're a risk. The same should be done with health officials. At the very least we should be taking contact details of anyone who has been in a risk area and has a fever - just to follow up.

One other breathtaking thing happened yesterday. Our Director-General of Health Ashely Bloomfield said he believed what the Chinese were saying about the extent of the outbreak, saying "I have no reason to believe the Chinese would be anything but very open and helpful". That's despite widespread censorship of images and video emerging from the outbreak's epicentre, with photos of bodies and chaos at hospitals being wiped from the internet. Some claim the true number of those infected is much higher than the Chinese are telling the world.

We should never trust a government that heavily censors its media, especially given China has a record of mistruth around the Sars outbreak.

New Zealand is world-leading when it comes to biosecurity; let's transfer that approach to do a little more to protect our border from a deadly disease too.

Are we really doing all we can? I don't think we can put our hand on our hearts and say we are.

Do you think enough is being done in New Zealand to screen for the coronavirus? Let us know in the comments below.