A Ruby Princess passenger who contracted COVID-19 on board says the ship’s senior doctor told him she did not believe he had the virus when he presented with symptoms.

Anthony Londero was one of two passengers taken to Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA) by ambulance in the early hours of 19 March after the cruise ship docked. 

He said Dr Ilse von Watzdorf swabbed him for influenza on 16 March, as she thought this was exacerbating his pre-existing heart condition. 

“She said ‘I don’t believe you have the coronavirus’ but when the flu swab came back negative she said … ‘I don’t think they’re going to be happy with us’ because it wasn’t the flu,” Mr Londero told the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess, a court case investigating the cruise ship’s arrival.