‘Wrong and baseless’: Air India refutes reports on 125 passengers testing COVID positive at Amritsar airport
Instead, an international chartered EuroAtlantic Airways flight YU661 from Milan carrying 179 passengers, of which 125 passengers tested Covid positive on arrival at Amritsar airport, this afternoon.
FollowAir India has quashed several media reports stating passengers onboard its flight to Rome testing positive for coronavirus on arrival at the Amritsar International Airport. The national carrier further clarified that it does not operate any flights from Rome as of now.
“Several media houses have reported that passengers of Air India flight from Rome to Amritsar have been tested COVID positive. This is wrong and baseless. Air India doesn’t operate any flight from Rome currently,” Air India tweeted.
Instead, an international chartered EuroAtlantic Airways flight YU661 from Milan carrying 179 passengers, of which 125 passengers tested Covid positive on arrival at Amritsar airport, this afternoon.
Amritsar International airport Director VK Seth had earlier said that 125 passengers of Air India’s Italy-Amritsar flight have tested positive on arrival.
"125 passengers of Air India's Italy-Amritsar flight have tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival at Amritsar airport," Seth had told news agency ANI. Earlier, these numbers were 100 and 84 respectively. All these passengers have been quarantined in Amritsar.
Also read: Chaotic scenes at Amritsar airport as 125 passengers test COVID positive on flight from Italy
The flight, which took off from Rome with a stopover at Georgia capital Tiblisi for refuelling, landed at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, at 11.20am on Thursday with 179 passengers. There were 19 children below the age of five on the flight. Children under 5 years of age are exempted from post-arrival testing, according to the union health ministry guidelines on international travel.
Later after clarifying, VK Seth said, “These 125 passengers of the chartered flight are being sent for institutional quarantine in their respective districts.”
On the coronavirus front, India’s active caseload currently stands at 2, 85,401 and they account for less than one percent of total cases, i.e., 0.81 percent. Country’s Covid-19 recovery rate currently stands at 97.81 percent and daily positivity rate stands at 6.43 percent.
