125 passengers from Italy test +ve on arrival at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, Rajasansi
Charanjit Singh Teja
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, January 6
As many as 125 passengers out of 179, who arrived at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport, Rajasansi, from Italy, tested positive here today.
The Air India flight arrived at the airport around 11.20 am and those who tested positive were asked to quarantine at a local hospital. However, the passengers refused to go to government isolation centres. They claimed they had already undergone the RT-PCR test before boarding the flight. “If majority of the passengers tested positive, why the airlines staff did not test positive?” asked a passenger.
They raised slogans against the government and demanded that they be allowed to go home. Those who had reached the airport to receive the passengers also staged a protest. After five-hour argument, health authorities agreed to allow them to return to their home districts and quarantine at local hospitals. Of the 125 passengers, 13 were from Amritsar and the rest went with health officials to their respective districts. However, of the 13 Amritsar patients, nine fled the airport and four, who reached Guru Nanak Hospital, also escaped.
DC Gurpreet Khaira directed ADC Ruhi Dugg to register a case against all of them. “We will tell the Home Department to cancel passports of these patients, as we have their records,” he said.
Airport Director VK Seth said: “We tried to convince the flyers to follow the government guidelines. Later, they were handed over to the state authorities for further decision.”
Omicron case in Malerkotla
- A man who tested positive for Omicron went missing from Guru Nanak colony in Malerkotla
- Health inspector Mohd Nazir said the patient had returned from Tanzania on December 28 and his sample was taken in New Delhi
- “When we visited his house, he was not there. We are trying to trace him,” Nazir said
