At least 173 of the 285 passengers onboard a Rome-Amritsar flight returned positive for COVID-19 after being tested on arrival.
Amritsar airport Director VK Seth was quoted as saying, "Test results of 210 passengers have been shared with me. Out of them, a total of 173 passengers have tested positive," PTI reported.
"Reports of 75 people were inconclusive and so they will be retested," Seth said. The chartered flight had arrived from Rome at around 12:20 pm on Friday.
As per the district health authority officials, all 173 COVID-positive passengers have been sent for institutional quarantine at their respective home town districts.
This comes just a day after 125 passengers who were travelling from Milan in Italy on another charter flight were found positive after being tested on arrival at the Amritsar airport.
According to a Hindustan Times report, the Punjab health department has ordered a probe against the private laboratory deputed at the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport in the aftermath of these incidents.
Meanwhile, it has been also learnt that 13 passengers out of the 125 passengers who tested positive for COVID upon their arrival from Milan on Thursday, have escaped institutional quarantine, news agency IANS reported. While nine of them escaped from the airport, four disappeared from a local hospital.
Local authorities said that they would file complaints against all of them.
According to the rules of the Union Health Ministry, passengers coming from "at risk" countries to India have to compulsorily get tested for COVID-19 on arrival at the airport.
All European countries, including Italy, have been deemed as "at risk" countries by the Union Health Ministry.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS.)
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