When the Chinese-Bat-Virus struck hard last March I was in Quito, Ecuador. Most businesses closed, there was a curfew, and some kind of a ban on local travel.
I contacted the British Embassy via their website. They provided information and support about evacuation flights and also gave me a "Salvocunducto" (official Government travel authorisation to the airport), and a cover letter, just in case anybody wanted to shoot me.
I was able to leave on my scheduled KLM flight, it was the last one to leave the city and I even got upgraded.
The Embassy e-mailed several days later to check that everything was OK.
Unfortunately, nowadays the pandemic is the norm, nobody cares any more.