Virus expert ordered off ‘chaotic’ ship

An expert on infectious diseases who worked on the Ebola outbreak in Africa said he had never feared as much for his safety as he did aboard the cruise ship locked down by coronavirus.

Kentaro Iwata was ejected from the Diamond Princess after raising questions about quarantine lapses, amid mounting criticism of the government’s handling of the crisis on board.

In a damning expose´ on YouTube, Prof Iwata, a Japanese infectious diseases professor at Kobe University, said he had been asked to leave after expressing concerns about “chaotic” scenes that could spread the Covid-19 virus. He claimed passengers were asked to sign consent forms that could have passed on the infection.

He is now in self-quarantine, fearing that he contracted it.

A further 79 cases were diagnosed, bringing the total infected on the ship to 621, as hundreds of others finally began to disembark at Yokohama Port at the official end of the 14-day isolation period.

Iwata, who previously worked on the Ebola outbreak in Africa, cholera emergencies and the Sars epidemic in China in 2003, said he had never been so “scared” for his safety as he was on the Diamond Princess.

“It turns out the cruise ship was completely inadequate in terms of the infection control. There was no distinction between the green zone, which is free of infection, and the red zone, which is potentially contaminated,” he said.

“There was no single professional infection control person inside the ship. The bureaucrats were in charge of everything.”

Japanese officials denied Iwata’s claims and defended their approach. Yoshihide Suga, a government spokesman, said: “Since February 5, we have taken thorough measures to prevent the spread of infection.”

Passengers who tested negative for Covid-19 were yesterday allowed to depart from the ship but concerns remain that some could be asymptomatic carriers — of the 79 newly confirmed cases, authorities said 68 were not showing symptoms.