The kiwi has been knocked back against the greenback as the number of deaths from the virus surpasses 200 and the number of confirmed cases heads towards 10,000. The US State Department today issued a "do not travel" to China advisory due to the outbreak and recommended that those currently in China should consider departing using commercial means. New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to advise that people avoid non-essential travel to China due to the outbreak.
The kiwi did pare some of its losses when the World Health Organization agreed that the outbreak now meets the criteria to declare a global health emergency. The agency once again lauded the leadership and political commitment of the very highest levels of China's government, their commitment to transparency, and the efforts made to investigate and contain the current outbreak.
"The measures China has taken are good not only for that country but also for the rest of the world," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
That coupled with news Chinese manufacturing activity was largely unchanged in January from the previous month, according to official data released Friday, helped stabilise sentiment.
The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 50 from 50.2 in December, said China's National Bureau of Statistics. It was in line with expectations.
The data doesn't, however, reflect the impact of the virus as the survey was taken before January 20.
While the kiwi improved slightly "it really hasn't bounced all week and I think there's been some reasonable buying going on," said Tim Kelleher, head of foreign exchange sales at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
"It is very hard to be long kiwi at the current point, with everything that's going on," he said.
"It's risk-off and Australia and New Zealand are very exposed to China."
On another front, the kiwi also lost ground against the British pound, trading at 49.47 British pence from 49.99 late yesterday. The pound ticked up after the Bank of England left rates unchanged overnight with seven members voting in favour and two against.
The UK is scheduled to leave the European Union today, with the UK Government aiming to seal an EU trade deal by year-end.
The New Zealand dollar was at 96.46 Australian cents from 96.61 cents yesterday. It was at 58.76 euro cents from 59.05, at 70.63 yen from 70.79 and at 4.4920 Chinese yuan from 4.5107.
The two-year swap rate had a bid price of 1.1054 per cent from 1.1228 yesterday, while 10-year swaps were at 1.4175 per cent from 1.4250.