125 passengers from an Italy-Amritsar chartered flight test positive for COVID-19

• The flight had 179 passengers on board.
• The country has 2,630 confirmed cases of the new COVID variant Omicron.
• The Indian government has pulled up 9 states and union territories to ramp up its testing.

A total of 125 passengers flying from Italy to Punjab have tested positive of Covid-19 on arrival at the Amritsar airport, airport director VK Seth has confirmed the development on Thursday (January 6).

The flight had 179 passengers on board. The chartered flight was reportedly operated by EuroAtlantic Airways, a Portuguese company as per a report by NDTV.

India reported 90,000 new COVID-19 cases on January 5, doubling the total tally from two days ago. The country has also noted the biggest spike of 495 omicron cases. Overall, India has over 2,630 confirmed cases of the new Covid variant.

The central government also wrote to nine states and union territories to set up more COVID-19 testing units. Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, and Bihar received the memo from the Indian government.

Additional Secretary of Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja, in the letter, pointed out a considerable decline in Covid-19 testing amid rising cases. It is rather impossible to determine the true level of infection in absence of sufficient testing, Ahuja added.

"Keeping in mind the unpredictable and highly transmissible behaviour of Omicron and the larger preponderance of asymptomatic cases, ramping up testing in the initial days itself will help to ensure that the infected individual does not spread the virus to others," she said.

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