I think the answer is simple. Testing is critical to tracking and stopping the outbreak. How would we even know a single person had it without a test?
We could just say fucck it, who cares? We get all sorts of viruses and (most) survive and move on. Lots get the flu every year. This is new, however, and its behavior is largely unknown. It is pretty clear it is more severe than the flu and the fatality rate among older folks is much higher though. And ofc, there is no vaccine.