The coach driver who took British evacuees from China from an RAF airport to the quarantine hospital was instructed not to wear a hazmat suit.
Peter Badger ferried 83 Brits from RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, to the facility on The Wirral, Merseyside, after they were rushed out of coronavirus-hit Wuhan.
His employer, Horseman Coaches, had secured the 54-year-old a protective suit but Government officials reportedly ordered the company not to issue it.
James Horseman, a director of the firm in Reading, Berkshire, said: "This was a risk assessment conducted by the Department of Health and Public Health England in advance.
"We were told if we sent the drivers suits, they would not be allowed to wear them."
The suits would "pose a greater risk than the risk of contracting the virus itself," said Mr Horseman.
But it potentially exposed Mr Badger to the virus throughout the four-and-a-half-hour journey 200 miles north to Merseyside on Friday.
The sight of the driver unprotected caused a stir online.
One social media contributor noted that they "must have kryptonite underpants on".
Mr Horseman said: "When we saw the images of the medical personnel wearing hazmat suits, it quite rightly sent alarm bells with the general public and our customers."
Their coaches were loaded with medical equipment as they waited for the charter flight to arrive.
Mr Badger told The Sunday Times: "I’ve been told I won’t get ill, and I believe that.
"To be honest, if I was wearing a hazmat suit I wouldn’t be able to drive that sort of distance.
"All the drivers said ‘yes’ straight away, without hesitation. We had been asked by the British government to help out fellow Brits. Everybody wanted to do their duty."
A spokesman for the Department for Health declined to comment.
