Professor Iwata says that a failure to follow basic infection control rules, and the unreliability of test results, mean that many of those released from quarantine could be carrying the disease

Japan’s incompetent quarantining of thousands of passengers on a British cruise ship created a “coronavirus machine” that risks further spreading the disease, one of the country’s leading experts has said.

Kentaro Iwata, a professor of infectious disease, condemned the decision to release most of the passengers following two weeks of quarantine today because of the danger that infected people who are showing no symptoms of the disease will return to families and jobs unaware that they are passing on the contagion.

About 500 of the 3,100 people on board the Diamond Princess are being allowed off today, 14 days after it was quarantined. Professor Iwata says that a failure to follow basic infection control rules, and the unreliability of test results, mean that many of