The orthodox community that I saw respected government directives, but some members did not want to take a nervous approach and voluntarily adopt stricter rules before the severity was universally acknowledged. The question being whether it becomes useful at certain times to be a news junkie glued to phones, where you start to make your own judgments and react more quickly. All my gemara teachers make it a point of not reading the newspaper and asking their students what is happening. This may be one of those rare occasions where that approach did not pay.