CHANDIGARH: A majority of passengers, who had tested positive after returning from Italy in two chartered flights, have been found to be without a Covid infection in re-testing. Officials have now ordered a probe against a private laboratory after the passengers alleged their test reports were false.
Sources said that most of the passengers in two batches -- 175 and 125 -- who returned last week (January 5 and 6) in two different chartered flights to Amritsar from Rome had tested positive initially at the Shri Guru Ramdas International Airport.
"A probe has been initiated by the Airports Authority of India against the alleged errant working of the laboratory. The services of the existing Delhi-based laboratory have been suspended," Assistant Civil Surgeon Dr Amarjit Singh said. "The lab was engaged on December 15 last year by the AAI. Now a new local laboratory has resumed its working at the airport."
The passengers had raised a hue and cry at the airport that they were negative when they boarded the flights after their RT-PCR tests. How did they then turn positive once they landed, they had questioned.
The passengers were asked to undergo institutional quarantine. However, when they refused, authorities at Amritsar allowed them to go to their native places where these passengers got their Covid tests done again. In those tests, their reports turned out to be negative.
A passenger on the condition of anonymity said. "I travelled with my family. We were negative when we boarded the flight, but when we landed in Amritsar all of us tested positive. How is it possible?"
On Saturday, out of the 194 passengers who arrived on an Air India flight from Birmingham (United Kingdom), 25 tested positive and were sent for home quarantine.
All European countries, including Italy, have been categorised as risk countries by the Union Health Ministry.