While in the usual course of events most of us would possibly jump at the chance to spend 14 days in a five-star city hotel, these are not ordinary times.

Instead, the coronavirus crisis has forced us into a situation where hundreds of Australians who have returned from overseas in recent days are now spending 14 days in mandatory quarantine in some of Sydney's finest establishments, but the experience will be anything but a holiday.

The rooms might be luxurious and the bedding plush, but it's still a big ask for anyone to ride out two weeks looking at the same four walls for 24 hours a day.

But that's where we are today and, sadly, there is no sensible alternative.

Early indications are that Australia is doing a reasonable job of slowing the spread of this terrible coronavirus but it's clear that travellers returning from overseas have been the source carriers of the virus for most local cases.

As we sit here in relative safety and watch as the number of overseas coronavirus fatalities climbs exponentially every day, the need for strict quarantine measures becomes frighteningly clear.

The government is not punishing returning travellers by forcing them into quarantine but, rather, is doing what it can to protect the broader population.

As is always the case, though, life is what you make of it - even in quarantine.

So full credit to Bathurst woman Liberty Smith who has shared with the Western Advocate her experience of ongoing mandatory isolation, saying "now is not the time to be whinging". That's the attitude we all need to be adopting now.

For the vast majority of us, whatever hardship and inconvenience we are currently experiencing, there will be many experiencing far worse.

Whinging about it helps no one.