Cannot (refuse) to refund our deposit even though planned destinations is in epicenter of the Coronavirus epidemic

We booked and paid our deposit to go to Hong Kong and Bali in April but due to the world wide epidemic of the Coronavirus we decided it is safer to rather postpone or cancel the trip. After contacting our travel agent it was told to us that there is no cause for alarm and that it is perfectly safe to still travel to Hong Kong and that we cannot postpone or move our trip to another date when more clarity have been given around the epidemic as we will lose our deposit already paid.

We also asked if we could rather use the deposit towards another destination which is saver at this point of time but were also advised this is not possible.

We feel this is circumstances out of our control and cannot be held liable for wanting to cancel when our health and possibly, our lives are at stake.

How can it still be deemed safe by the travel agency if the airline we were supposed to fly with has suspended half of their flights to Hong Kong, when the attractions available to visit is closed, when major sport events planned in Hong Kong has been cancelled??

Is money more important to them than there clients well-being and lives?