How about if the notional patient toured around China via car or train, possibly passing through Wuhan en route and then left China via Shanghai or Canton etc? What travel records would there then be?
Although this new virus is not identical to SARS, it has enough similarities to make comparisons valid. And SARS, after all the panic and hysteria that accompanied it, finished up with 8,900 cases and a 9.6% fatality rate. Which is not exactly world ending.