Chaotic scenes at Amritsar airport as 125 passengers test COVID positive on flight from Italy

As many as 125 passengers of an international chartered flight from Italy to Amritsar have tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival at Amritsar airport, this afternoon. There were 179 passengers, including 19 children, on the chartered flight from Milan that arrived in Amritsar around 1.30 pm. The flight made a technical halt at Tbilisi (Georgia), according to officials. It was reportedly operated by EuroAtlantic Airways, a Portuguese company.

As many as 125 passengers of an international chartered flight from Italy to Amritsar have tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival at the Amritsar airport, Airport Director VK Seth said on Thursday.

Also read: Omicron surge: Centre urges 9 states, union territories to ramp up testing

Since Italy is one of the “at risk” countries according to the Union Health Ministry, all eligible passengers -- 160 in this case -- were tested for Covid-19 and 125 of them were found to be positive, they mentioned.

The passengers who are Covid positive will be sent to institutional quarantine.

Chaotic visuals from the Amritsar airport showed a large number of passengers waiting to leave and policemen trying to control the crowd. Many of the passengers questioned why they tested positive after Covid negative results in Italy.

There has been a huge spurt in Covid cases across the country. The number of Covid-19 cases have exploded in the country. India today reported more than 90,000 cases.  

Meanwhile, the country saw the biggest single-day jump of 495 Omicron cases on Thursday, taking the total number of infections of the new variant of coronavirus to 2,630. Of the total cases, Maharashtra has the maximum at 797. The country reported 90,928 fresh coronavirus infections, the highest in over 200 days, that pushed its caseload to 3,51,09,286.

• 125 passengers
• Amritsar airport
• Chaotic scenes
• flight from Italy
• test COVID positive
• Airport Director VK Seth