New Delhi (TIP)- India saw a massive spike of over 1 lakh (1,17,100) Covid-19 cases, as per the date released by the Union health ministry on Friday, Jan 7. The last time India had reported more than 1 lakh daily Covid cases was on June 6 last year. The new Omicron variant is believed to be behind this exponential rise. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that a record 9.5 million Covid-19 cases were tallied over the last week. However, the number of weekly recorded deaths declined. The country’s count of the highly transmissible Omicron crossed the 3,000-mark (3,007 to be exact) with 1,199 patients having been cured as well.

With 302 patients dying due to related complications, the toll touched 4,83,178. As many as 30,836 people recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally to 3,43,71,845.

125 passengers of Italy-Amritsar flight test Covid positive

The international airport at Amritsar witnessed chaos on Thursday as a chartered flight from Rome landed with 179 passengers, of whom 125 tested positive for Covid-19.

While 13 of the passengers were from Amritsar, the biggest group of 26 was from Hoshiarpur in the state, 10 from Haryana and one each from Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.

The situation at the airport turned tense as a war of words ensued between the administration and the passengers, who said that all of them had produced negative Covid-19 reports before boarding the flight and that it was highly unlikely that so many of them had tested positive on arrival.

The chartered flight, owned by New Delhi-based SARC Aviation, landed at Amritsar airport at 4.20 am on Thursday.

Outside the airport, relatives of the passengers raised slogans against the Punjab government and the Centre, alleging a “conspiracy” behind the high number of Covid cases on board the flight.

Gurinder Kaur, who had come to pick up her husband, said, “They were negative for Covid when they boarded the flight. How could they have turned positive during the eight-hour-long flight? It was mandatory to procure Covid negative reports not older than 72 hours before boarding the flight in Italy. This is impossible.”

Tempers flared further as ambulances arrived at the airport to take passengers to the Guru Nanak Dev Hospital in Amritsar.

“We have taken all the 13 passengers to the hospital. There have been instructions from the government to not allow home isolation for international passengers who test positive. They will be observed and treated at the hospital,” said Amritsar Chief Medical Officer Charanjit Singh.