22 February/23 February 2020 ★ FTWeekend 7
R O B I N H A R D I N G— TOKYO
N I C O L L E L I U— HONG KONG
J O H N R E E D— BANGKOK
When retiree Linda Ip booked a 10-day
voyage on board the Diamond Princess
withherhusbandandagroupoffriends,
she hoped the party’s toughest decision
would be whether to dine on sushi or
steak.
The 62-year-old Hong Kong resident
knew of the mysterious coronavirus
that had taken hold in the Chinese city
of Wuhan — Hong Kong declared a state
of emergency on January 25, the day
before they departed — but her group
was in good spirits as they boarded the
luxury cruise ship and set sail for the
JapaneseportofYokohama.
What the Ips never imagined was that
the deadly epidemic would erupt on
board the ship and they would spend
almosttwoweeksconfinedtoawindow-
less cabin, before they tested positive
themselves and the holiday took an
evendarkerturn.
“The virus was spreading widely. We
didn’t know which corner of the ship,
which person was infected,” said Ms Ip,
whoadmitteditwashardtostaycalmas
the number of cases steadily rose.
“Unfortunately everyone on board may
havebeenincontactwiththevirus.”
Ms Ip is one of 3,711 passengers and
crew caught up in the worst outbreak of
the deadly disease outside China, with
621 confirmed cases, after a controver-
sial quarantine blamed by some experts
formakingtheoutbreakworse.
Two passengers have died but more
than 1,000 have been allowed to leave
the ship this week, even though US and
Hong Kong authorities say they pose an
riskofspreadingthevirus.
The troubled quarantine of the Dia-
mondPrincess—withthousandsofpeo-
ple packed together in a perfect envi-
ronment to spread the disease, not con-
trol it — has exposed an international
loophole in the handling of cruise ships.
Once on board, the passengers are
beyond national borders. If they fall ill
with a contagious pathogen, countries
canrefusetoletthemin.
That was illustrated by the plight of a
second cruise ship, the Westerdam,
which was turned away by four coun-
tries and the US territory of Guam even
though there were no known cases of
thevirusonboard.
After a fortnight at sea, passengers on
the Westerdam were allowed to disem-
bark in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, only
for one of them to test positive, an illus-
tration of why nobody wanted to accept
thevesselinthefirstplace.
Christina Kerby, who travelled on the
Westerdam, said that despite the unu-
sual circumstances, the passengers had
bonded as their vessel plied the seas
looking for a port, although the virus
test itself was “terrible and frightening”.
It involved a “painful swab up my nose
that felt like it went straight through the
back of my head. I panicked and
screamed”,shesaid.
The Westerdam passengers had the
amenities of a normal cruise. But after
their quarantine began on February 4,
those on board the Diamond Princess
had only their roommate, a WiFi con-
nection and the valiant efforts of the
crew, who amid the crisis did their best
to maintain onboard morale by deliver-
ing Valentine’s Day gifts, thermometers,
sudokuandvitamins.
What happened in this period is the
subject of debate. When Kentaro Iwata,
a Japanese infectious diseases expert,
visited the Diamond Princess on Tues-
day he denounced its infection controls
as “completely inadequate”, with no
clear separation between a green zone,
freeofthevirus,andaredzoneofpoten-
tial infection. Four Japanese officials
have caught the disease, hinting at the
makeshiftandinadequatequarantine.
Prof Iwata’s comments raised the pos-
sibility that the infection spread during
quarantine. But he later claimed to be
reassured, after Japan’s infectious dis-
eases institute published data showing a
falling number of new cases among pas-
sengersastheconfinementcontinued.
As the two weeks of quarantine came
to an end on Wednesday, Japan began to
releasehundredsofpassengerswhohad
tested negative, dropping them off at
Yokohama’s train station despite inter-
national fears that the ineffective quar-
antinemeanttheycouldbecarriers.
The US Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention said letting the passen-
gers leave the vessel was an error, while
Lam Ching-choi, an adviser to Hong
Kong chief executive Carrie Lam, was
also critical. “It is very difficult to con-
vince our experts that those released
from the quarantine centre are free
fromthevirus,”hesaid.“Itisaninfected
ship.” Yesterday, two Australians from
the ship were diagnosed with the virus,
havingpreviouslytestednegative.
Assomeofthepassengerswhodisem-
barked from the Diamond Princess
made plans to head home, the vessel’s
crew began a fresh quarantine. Ms Ip,
meanwhile, now a patient at the Nagara
Medical Centre in Japan, is no longer
sureifsheevenhasthevirus.
“There might have been some mis-
communication. The hospital did lots of
check-ups and just told me the test is
negative. They’ll do it again today or
tomorrow.”
Editorial Commentpage 10
Megan Greenepage 11
Threat to luxury sectorpage 13
Lexpage 22Passengers’
plight exposes
cruise ship
loophole
Travellers are outside national borders so
countries can refuse them entry if they fall ill
‘It is difficult to convince
experts that those released
from quarantine are
free from the virus’
H E N RY F OY— MOSCOW
JA M E S S H OT T E R— BRATISLAVA
Belarus has been offered compensa-
tion from Moscow to offset reduced
income from handling Russian oil, the
country’s president said yesterday in a
step that could ease months of tension
between the two neighbours.
Russia has long propped up Belarus’s
finances with supplies of cheap crude
that Minsk then re-exports at market
prices. But a 2018 change to Russia’s
excise tax regime has steadily reduced
the country’s discount, eroding
revenuesandsouringr elations.
“Belarus has already calculated the
losses in financial terms: approximately
$420m-$430m in losses from the tax
manoeuvrearoundthesupplyof24mil-
lion tonnes of oil,” Belarusian president
Alexander Lukashenko said yesterday
after a call with Russian president
VladimirPutin,who“hassuggestedthat
thismoneybecompensated”.
The 65-year-old Mr Lukashenko has
spoken warmly of Belarus’s ties with the
EU and the US in recent months while
criticising Russia and Mr Putin, a tactic
he has used before when seeking to lev-
erage benefits from Moscow. Analysts
said the comments were an attempt to
remind the Kremlin that Minsk had
alternatives to remaining a Moscow
quasi-client state. The longstanding dis-
count on Russian oil has in effect pro-
vided a subsidy to Minsk worth around
3 per cent of gross domestic product,
andensureditsloyaltytoMoscow.
Last month, Belarus started import-
ing gas from Norway as an alternative to
Russian supplies. Earlier this month,
MikePompeobecamethefirstUSsecre-
tary of state to the former Soviet state in
a quarter of a century, and said that the
UScouldmeetallofBelarus’soilneeds.
The Kremlin yesterday did not con-
firm if an exact figure was discussed on
the call, but said talks to find a solution
werecontinuing.
The impact of the tax change on Bela-
rus’sfinanceshasbecomemorepolitical
asRussiahaspushedfordeeperintegra-
tionbetweenthetwocountries.Eastern Europe
Moscow offers to compensate
Belarus for drop in oil revenue
A RT H U R B E E S L E Y— DUBLINIreland’s police chief has waded into a
bitter post-election row over Sinn
Féin’s links with the Irish Republican
Army, saying the nationalist party is
overseen by the “army council” of the
paramilitary group.The intervention of Drew Harris, com-
missioner of the national Garda police
force, came after Sinn Féin shocked the
traditionalrulingpartiesbywinningthe
popular vote and the second-largest
numberofseatsinthegeneralelection.
Mr Harris yesterday said his view of
the IRA’s role was in line with the con-
clusions of other police forces and secu-
rityservices.
“I am aware of the Police Service of
Northern Ireland and British security
service’s assessment and we do not dif-
fer from that view,” said Mr Harris, who
was deputy chief of the PSNI before tak-
ingcommandoftheGardain2018.
Mr Harris, whose father was a North-
ern Ireland police officer murdered by
the IRA, is the first officer to cross the
bordertoleadtheGarda.
Sinn Féin has been a fringe party fordecades because of its support for the
IRA’s violent campaign to force Britain
to leave Northern Ireland before the
1998 Good Friday peace deal. Mary Lou
McDonald, the party’s leader, has
insisted the IRA’s armed campaign is
over as she tries to form a leftwing gov-
ernmentdespitefallingshortofamajor-
ityintheDáil,thelowerhouse.
Responding to Mr Harris’s remarks,
Ms McDonald insisted the IRA “does
not”exist“sofarasIamaware”.
She added: “I don’t answer for the
IRA,I’mnotaspokespersonfortheIRA.
I’m the leader of Sinn Féin and I’m tell-
ingyouthewarisover.”
Outgoing prime minister Leo Varad-
kar formally resigned on Thursday but
will continue in office as taoiseach
alongside his ministers as efforts to
patch together a new coalition within
thefragmentedDáilintensify.
Both Mr Varadkar’s Fine Gael party,
which came third, and the opposition
Fianna Fáil, which won the most seats,
have ruled out a coalition with Sinn Féin
because of its paramilitary connections
and differences over its leftwing eco-
nomicpolicies.Coalition talks
Ireland’s police chief claims
Sinn Féin overseen by IRA
A bus with a Chinese banner saying
‘Go, we are going home!’ carries
Hong Kong passengers from the
quarantined Diamond Princess
cruise ship in Yokohama yesterday
Eugene Hoshiko/AP>1,
Number of
passengers allowed
to leave the ship
this week3,
Passengers and
crew on board the
Diamond Princess
cruise shipINTERNATIONAL
FEBRUARY 22 2020 Section:World Time: 21/2/2020 - 18: 57 User: john.conlon Page Name: WORLD3, Part,Page,Edition: LON, 7, 1