| Update: As it turns out, the lab being used at Amritsar Airport made an error, and is to blame for most of the positive coronavirus cases. You can find the original post below. |
Every so often we see a story of an incredible number of people on a flight testing positive for coronavirus, and this is one of those…
In this post:
125 people on Milan to Amritsar flight test positive for COVID-19
On Wednesday, January 5, 2022, a charter flight operated from Milan, Italy (BGY), to Amritsar, India (ATQ). The roughly seven hour flight was operated by Portuguese charter company EuroAtlantic Airways (the airline seems to operate this route roughly once weekly). The flight in question was YU661, and it was operated by a 19-year-old Boeing 767-300 with the registration code CS-TST.
There were a total of 179 passengers on the flight, including 160 adults and 19 children. Since Italy is considered a “high risk” destination, all adult passengers had to be tested upon arrival. Well, of those 160 adult passengers, 125 have tested positive for coronavirus — that’s a 78% positivity rate.
All passengers who tested positive have been put into a quarantine facility until they recover.
Now, someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe all international travelers arriving in India also need a PCR test within 72 hours of commencing their journey to India, right? So at least in theory, these passengers should have undergone pre-travel testing. I say “in theory” because some travelers choose to just fake test results, rather than actually getting tested.
How is this possible?!?
This is one of those situations where you can’t help just be confused. In the past we’ve seen some staggering numbers of coronavirus cases on a flight, like when 10% of KLM passengers on flights from South Africa tested positive.
But 125 or 160 adults on a particular flight testing positive for coronavirus, especially with a pre-travel testing requirement? I feel like if three days before a trip you gathered 160 people who actively had coronavirus, you wouldn’t get this number of people testing positive for coronavirus by the time they arrived in India.
Yes, omicron is incredibly contagious, but this simply defies all odds, especially when you consider that everyone presumably had coronavirus before they got on the plane (because you typically won’t test positive hours after exposure).
There has to be more to this? Did all 160 adults attend the same event a couple of days before the flight, and make out with one another? Are the tests in Amritsar not working properly, and they’ve swapped the results? This is truly on a different level…
Bottom line
A EuroAtlantic Airways charter flight from Milan to Amritsar set new records, as 125 of 160 adults on the flight tested positive for coronavirus upon arrival. I’m speechless as to how this is even possible…
What do you make of the number of positive coronavirus cases on this flight from Italy to India?
Apparently it's the lab's fault and they have been replaced and a probe has been ordered.
link here -https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/lab-faces-probe-after-hundreds-positive-on-italy-amritsar-flights-report-2697741
The tests are bogus. 58% false positive rate.
Lucky there is an update: a second flight landed today at the same Amritsar airport from Italy. In itc176 people tested positive today, it’s an authentic news link is here https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/173-onboard-another-italy-india-flight-covid-positive-after-landing-in-amritsar-2695305/amp/1
And 13 of them have reportedly "escaped" quarantine and are on the loose.
Looks like a bunch of these guys have escaped from quarantine now.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-59904527
From what I have been reading, with Omicron people can test positive very quickly after a negative, so that 72 hour window leaves a lot of room for positivity!
I would propose that 160 people on the flight had/ will have covid. Why bother quarantining them?
Because just one person has all the potential to infect and immunocompromised patient (as an example) without even knowing. Virus mutates and there you go. A new variant. And basically, that is how we keep on adding a new letter from the Greek alphabet into this storm.
An isolated, vaccinated group of researchers in Antarctica came down with COVID, even though they all tested negative multiple times before traveling down there. Viruses like this need to mutate themselves into irrelevance.
Some people have the illusion of control.
"DO WE REALLY WANT TO LIVE LIKE THIS FOREVER?!?!?!?!?!"-people who genuinely cannot stop spreading covid for even one single second but also want to pretend like they are victims.
Exactly. The very people, many of whom keep the pandemic going with their antics, are the ones yelling about this going on forever. It's like they think the rest of us don't want things to return to normal.
Things will not go back to normal, never. This is the new reality. What else do you need to actually recognize that fact? We have to learn to live with a never-ending-mutating-airborne virus that will still continue to cause serious impacts to our daily lives.
I made a post in this Conversation box more or less explaining this situation from a scientific and personal point of view. Hope you could read it to gasp...
Things will not go back to normal, never. This is the new reality. What else do you need to actually recognize that fact? We have to learn to live with a never-ending-mutating-airborne virus that will still continue to cause serious impacts to our daily lives.
I made a post in this Conversation box more or less explaining this situation from a scientific and personal point of view. Hope you could read it to gasp this new reality. And please, somehow, get over it. None of us will go back to the “return of normal”. At this point, nothing is normal or will be anymore. I´m sorry.
People still don´t understand the severity of this new reality. As society we want to push back to what it was before Covid. To go back to our life’s because doing so it´s so much easier. But reality is bigger than desire and even though you try to hide the sun with your thumb, the sun it´s still out there. Problem with this virus is that it has a remarkable sense of mutation and adaptation....
People still don´t understand the severity of this new reality. As society we want to push back to what it was before Covid. To go back to our life’s because doing so it´s so much easier. But reality is bigger than desire and even though you try to hide the sun with your thumb, the sun it´s still out there. Problem with this virus is that it has a remarkable sense of mutation and adaptation. That is a fact. And even though we all know it, many still don´t knowledge it.
I loved to travel before Covid. I started traveling since I was 2 and didn´t stop until the Wuhan event took place. Now I´m 34. So, yes. I know a thing or two about traveling. And yes, I know a thing or two about science since I´ve been working in the health industry for the past 15 years.
Facts. You might be healthy. You might think that you have a good normal perfect fitted life. Triple vaccination and everything. But when you get sick, with a virus that we are still studying because we see mutations offspring constantly…
You might get shivers, fever, headache and all the symptoms that we all know. But are you aware that you might infect someone else even though you might take all necessary precautions? And that someone else is al elderly person, an immunocompromised, a neutropenic and so on…
That´s the beauty (awful beauty) of the butterfly effect. By an action you cause a chain of consequence that is bigger than you might think. So where do you draw the line in these torn events of responsibilities? Do you still continue to force a reality that doesn´t fit into this new spectrum? Do you really need to cause unnecessary effects to an over damaged system? Where do you establish your limits and boundaries? Are you doing any of that…?
In my personal experience, with this new reality, in this very particular context, even though I can pay for a business class ticket and spend weeks in 5 stars Hotels to anywhere I want to, I choose to stay at home. If I really need to travel, I do so by car, to a nearby country or province. Bubble mode. Keeping distance from people and being a sort of a hermit. It´s better to stay 6 feet apart than 6 feet under.
And I´m truly sorry for the people that made so much effort to have a profession of something so ephemeral, and now they are trying to not move from the old reality into this horrible and uncomfortable one without making any real change. And yes, I´m mostly talking about travel bloggers and the travel community perse.
What else do we need? How much have we evolved in all of this?
Hopefully this will get the authorities to stop the testing requirements
Mass formation psychosis.
How many rupees for a fake result?
Asking for a friend
Probably 100
It's closer to Rs 500 for a fake test from what I see reported.
A legitimate test at Milan airport is €20 or Rs 1700.
So guess which one most are choosing...
Correction, a PCR test is needed for return to India. A legitimate PCR test around Milan probably runs €90-100 or Rs 7500-8500 so a fake PCR test is significantly cheaper.
So, this really isn't that hard to explain/theorize.
1) It's a charter - so it's likely many if not most of these people were travelling together or otherwise associated prior to the flight.
2) This is likely Omicron.
3) A 72-hour pretesting window doesn't mean much vs Omicron - test negative at 72 hours, even if infected, and then in those intervening three days reach testable levels of infection. Test positive on landing.
Covid immunity is very short and you can get reinfected with covid. So the whole I'm immune debate isn't logical and each time you get infected symptoms progress and get worse. More likely they either touched a surface and then their face without handwriting or took their mask off to eat and drink.
Yeah next time they should leave their masks on when eating or drinking!
I will not travel out of the Country when I could potentially test positive for 12 weeks per the CDC.
Who would go on a cruise with the potential nightmare of being locked up in your cabin while being asymptomatic?
The rules need to change.
I think we're going to see more similar cases going forward. It's always been a risk that people get infected in the window between the pre-departure test and boarding the aircraft. But it just becomes so much more likely with the higher virulence as well as shorter incubation time of omicron.
Why do you ask "Are the tests in Amritsar not working properly?" and not "Are the tests in Milan not working properly?"
Because we know for sure that they all tested at the same facility on arrival whereas they could've taken tests via various methods or locations at the departure point. However, your point is valid in this case as it's a charter - all the folks could've taken the pre-flight test at the same location/service/method, etc.
Places like Atlanta are seeing close to 50% of tests return positive. Not exactly the same of course, as one would assume most people testing in Atlanta show symptoms or have been exposed. But still, with Omicron, I guess anything is possible.
Herd immunity is the only way out. When are all you vaccine cultists going to accept the fact your masks are a failure. Your lockdowns are a failure. Your vaccines are a failure. ALL your virus theatre is a failure.
hahahahahaha
Cites please.
@James
Please make a point to report back here when you have got the virus and achieved that temporary herd immunity! We'd all love to know how that goes for you!
Oh, and if there is any choice in the matter, don't get Delta, as there is still plenty of that still swirling around, still relentlessly culling the herd of un-vaxxed and un-boosted. Oops!
There’s no such thing as herd immunity with this disease. It won’t happen. The vaccine, which seems to help prevent serious illness, does not stop the spread. There has been 2 years of “experts” getting things wrong, and it’s all coming out now. This will be an endemic disease. If you feel at risk, take whatever flavor of vaccine is available in any given year.
Recent data from the State of Wisconsin showed unvaccinated were 5x more likely to get Omicron than the vaccinated (and of course it was ~10x-12x more likely too to end up in the hospital or die).
So yes, vaccines aren't perfect, but the fewer people get it, the less it spreads too. #science #medicine
"Vaccinated people are getting COVID-19, so it ISN'T WORKING!"
Folks. FOLKS.
NO VACCINE STOPS 100% OF PEOPLE FROM GETTING SICK.
NONE OF THEM.
NOT ONE.
COVID-19 vaccine: 85-95% effective
Pfizer - https://www.cdc.gov/.../different.../Pfizer-BioNTech.html
All three - https://www.yalemedicine.org/.../covid-19-vaccine-comparison
Measles vaccine: 97% effective
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/measles/index.html
Mumps vaccine: 88% effective
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html
Smallpox vaccine: 95% effective
https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/7022/
HPV vaccine: 98% effective
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/hpv/hcp/vaccines.html
Pertussis vaccine: 80-90%...
"Vaccinated people are getting COVID-19, so it ISN'T WORKING!"
Folks. FOLKS.
NO VACCINE STOPS 100% OF PEOPLE FROM GETTING SICK.
NONE OF THEM.
NOT ONE.
COVID-19 vaccine: 85-95% effective
Pfizer - https://www.cdc.gov/.../different.../Pfizer-BioNTech.html
All three - https://www.yalemedicine.org/.../covid-19-vaccine-comparison
Measles vaccine: 97% effective
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/measles/index.html
Mumps vaccine: 88% effective
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/mmr/public/index.html
Smallpox vaccine: 95% effective
https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/7022/
HPV vaccine: 98% effective
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/hpv/hcp/vaccines.html
Pertussis vaccine: 80-90% effective
https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/about/faqs.html
Chickenpox vaccine: 90% effective
https://www.hhs.gov/immuni.../diseases/chickenpox/index.html
Flu vaccine: 10-60% effective
https://www.webmd.com/.../how-effective-is-the-flu-vaccine
Do you get it? Do you?
EVERY vaccine has breakthrough infections. EVERY vaccine is less than 100% effective. But they REDUCE infections. They REDUCE SEVERITY. They REDUCE DEATHS.
Is 85-95% lower than some other vaccines? Sure. But it's STILL 85-95% EFFECTIVE.
Why aren't you getting the measles if the vaccine isn't 100% effective? Because in most places, there isn't an outbreak of measles occurring. You're not going to spontaneously develop measles. It has to be transmitted from someone else. And that doesn't happen if MEASLES DOESN'T EXIST IN THE COMMUNITY because EVERYONE WHO CAN BE VACCINATED HAS BEEN. Those who can't be vaccinated are protected by HERD IMMUNITY because EVERYONE ELSE is immunized and thus doesn't spread the virus around. That's why we started seeing outbreaks when THE ANTI-VAX MOVEMENT FREAKED OUT ABOUT AUTISM AND STOPPED VACCINATING THEIR KIDS.
Yes, people will get sick despite being vaccinated. But FEWER of them will, and they will get LESS SICK, and they will be LESS LIKELY TO FREAKING DIE.
Which is why, even while vaccinated people are sometimes getting sick, emergency rooms and intensive care units are currently overwhelmed BY UNVACCINATED PATIENTS.
The reason we're seeing relatively frequent breakthrough cases right now is because WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC and the virus is INCREDIBLY CONTAGIOUS and ACTIVELY SPREADING.
It's not a difficult concept. The vaccine is safe. It's effective. It's not 100% effective because
No.
Vaccine.
Is.
100%.
Effective.
So James, where are your cites?
Pamm, you haven't a clue what you're talking about. You're conflating an actual vaccine and its effectiveness (which is defined as preventing you from contracting the disease) to these covid vaccines which help you not become serious ill. These vaccines are not effective at all, in the traditional sense. They're effective is reducing severity.
Meanwhile @Charles you just posted false information about the Germany vaccinated Omicron cases - check yourself
Haha, just like UA-NYC to make things up to suit his/her/their own narrative. I did not post false information about anything.
Just because you don't like a fact and it doesn't suit your coastal elite narrative, doesn't mean it's not true. Sorry to burst you're bubble so that you have to encounter the real world of facts and truth.
Here's the direct fact-based repudiation of your false stat, anti-vaxxing troll:
https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-rki-omicron/fact-check-german-institute-did-not-report-96-of-omicron-cases-fully-vaccinated-idUSL1N2TK195
UA-NYC
Funny you calling someone names on here, kind of takes away from your argument and just makes you look petty. Your narrative is crumbling with Omicron…. Everyone will get it, it’s sweeping like wildfire through NY, doesn’t matter if you’ve done everything “right” or not. Doesn’t matter if you are boosted or not… to the point where if asymptomatic now your isolation period is 5 days, precisely because nothing is working to even slow...
UA-NYC
Funny you calling someone names on here, kind of takes away from your argument and just makes you look petty. Your narrative is crumbling with Omicron…. Everyone will get it, it’s sweeping like wildfire through NY, doesn’t matter if you’ve done everything “right” or not. Doesn’t matter if you are boosted or not… to the point where if asymptomatic now your isolation period is 5 days, precisely because nothing is working to even slow the spread much less stop it but a tacit recognition that lockdowns and shutdowns of 2020 were boneheaded policy and that society must soldier on. You and your kind are loosing us normal people because of you rigidity of thought and willingness almost eagerness to shame and call people names. Just food for thought. Regardless of our differences I truly wish you good health my friend!
UA-NYC. There was no false stat given. The RKI updated their 12/30 report twice (yesterday and several days ago). I literally read the report (in German) on the 1st. I provided a fact that was from the source, and did not realize it was “updated” until today. The Reuters headline is even factually untrue when it asserts the RKI “did not report” the 95% number. They definitely did, and then changed it several days later.
...UA-NYC. There was no false stat given. The RKI updated their 12/30 report twice (yesterday and several days ago). I literally read the report (in German) on the 1st. I provided a fact that was from the source, and did not realize it was “updated” until today. The Reuters headline is even factually untrue when it asserts the RKI “did not report” the 95% number. They definitely did, and then changed it several days later.
The updated number doesn’t change the point I was making in any way. The report still provides some insight into the allegation that the vaccine has done nothing to stop the transmission of this disease (it just doesn’t make it more likely, like the initial report indicated).
Go back to your regular scheduled broadcast of calling everyone anti-vax and anti science who your leaders tell you to not agree with. Enjoy your crime riddled lockdown hell-hole cities while the rest of us actually start to think for ourselves, instead of being told what to think.
Also, back to my earlier point, 78% of people I know have not gotten breakthrough infections for mumps. But 78% of people on this flight got covid. So someone is lying about their numbers. Certainly wouldn't be the drug company making billions on the COVID vaccine, right?
According to this flight, the vaccines were only 22% effective.
Cite: this article
yes, given the contagiousness of omicron, herd immunity is the only way out. and on the way most of the unvaccinated will suffer and die out, thereby making the world achieve herd immunity sooner. us vaccine cultists unfortunately will have to accept some sufferings and rare deaths as well but with milder symptoms. we try to practice social distancing and wear masks to slow the spread but just couldn't stop the spreading to the anti-vaxxers....
yes, given the contagiousness of omicron, herd immunity is the only way out. and on the way most of the unvaccinated will suffer and die out, thereby making the world achieve herd immunity sooner. us vaccine cultists unfortunately will have to accept some sufferings and rare deaths as well but with milder symptoms. we try to practice social distancing and wear masks to slow the spread but just couldn't stop the spreading to the anti-vaxxers. really sad but vaccine cultists seem to come out ahead.
James, many (who just cannot be bothered to post to this crowd on here) are with you. You're not alone.
Maybe they were at the same hotel? Or on the same tour? Maybe the charter didn’t enforce the testing before departure. Maybe it included some insurance and didn’t want to pay out? Clearly lots of fishiness running around this story.
I do like how the UK is giving up on all the hassles with travel testing. I have tests I can administer myself, in the safety of my own hotel, without waiting outside a...
Maybe they were at the same hotel? Or on the same tour? Maybe the charter didn’t enforce the testing before departure. Maybe it included some insurance and didn’t want to pay out? Clearly lots of fishiness running around this story.
I do like how the UK is giving up on all the hassles with travel testing. I have tests I can administer myself, in the safety of my own hotel, without waiting outside a COVID testing clinic with likely very infectious people. Omicron has showed us that this virus can’t be controlled. We all just need to get the shots and carry on with life. I know several people recently infected that were vaccinated and all had mild symptoms even with high core morbidities. I’m in Barcelona now and just dreading the flight home. How nice it would be if I could just submit a video of me doing my rapid test at hotel/home to VeriFLY and be done with it.
Given we're not even testing pre-flight for the UK as of this weekend, you can basically expect a good proportion of the people on the flight to have it.
That's before you get into scum like this person: https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/rwt70k/caught_this_woman_sitting_in_front_of_me_on_a/
Just let covid spread through as many people as possible. That seems like the only logical conclusion to this nightmare.
It's been two years and the world is seeing more cases than ever before.
Do we really want to live like this forever?
We don't want to live like this forever, no. And we're in a different place now than we were when this miserable disease arrived with better tools to fight it, but "let is spread through as many people as possible"? Are you serious? For many the effects are mild if you're fully vaccinated (with a real vaccine and an accompanying booster), but for those with underlying health issues, a problem all over the world, it...
We don't want to live like this forever, no. And we're in a different place now than we were when this miserable disease arrived with better tools to fight it, but "let is spread through as many people as possible"? Are you serious? For many the effects are mild if you're fully vaccinated (with a real vaccine and an accompanying booster), but for those with underlying health issues, a problem all over the world, it can be much more serious. Variants will continue to spawn so long as there are pockets of the world without vaccination access, and the unvaccinated continue their idiotic quest to prove to the world that they have a right to make their own choices when faced with a deadly disease. If you want to let COVID spread freely, please feel free to get yourself infected and report back.
You’ve been brainwashed. The data totally suggests that the vaccine does a lot in preventing serious illness, but does near nothing to stop the spread. Germany even collected data on omicron which revealed 95% of omicron cases were in fully vaccinated individuals, despite the country as a whole only being 72% fully vaccinated.
People need to start thinking for themself, this is getting ridiculous.
No Charles, stop the spread… of misinformation. https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-rki-omicron-idUSL1N2TK195
Demonstrably false - https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-rki-omicron/fact-check-german-institute-did-not-report-96-of-omicron-cases-fully-vaccinated-idUSL1N2TK195
@Lucky/Tiffany - please stop these anti-vaxxers from spreading false information
LOL, wow I'm one awful anti-vaxxer after being jabbed multiple times.
Even the "fact-check" acknowldges that the the RKI did indeed report the number. They only later "corrected" it. I literally read the report from the source, so don't accuse me to spreading any misinformation when I'm literally spreading facts from the source.
The new number also points toward the vaccine being not effective against transmission. About a quarter unvaccinated and a quarter of the...
LOL, wow I'm one awful anti-vaxxer after being jabbed multiple times.
Even the "fact-check" acknowldges that the the RKI did indeed report the number. They only later "corrected" it. I literally read the report from the source, so don't accuse me to spreading any misinformation when I'm literally spreading facts from the source.
The new number also points toward the vaccine being not effective against transmission. About a quarter unvaccinated and a quarter of the sample being unvaccinated.
Unfortunately, your antibodies decay so quickly that you would get reinfected way before the pandemic is over.
P.s. vaccine induced IGs exhibit a slower decay
It is not uncommon for people to catch Covid twice in a year, with the second case sometimes worse than the first, so just letting it spread does not seem the solution (not to mention that it’s unpredictable and the first infection can prove lethal).
Was on a November cruise around Italy when the government was requiring passengers only take ship organized and controlled tours. We thought Italy was protecting its citizens and visitors from catching COVID from those aboard ships, but now it seems the other way around. Our ship was COVID free.
@Mishas - what is the solution then? Continue to lurch in and out of lockdowns forever? Most people in Western countries who can get vaccinated have already had the opportunity to and the world is seeing more cases than ever. The vaccines have lessened serious illness, they haven't sopped the virus spreading.
Everyone has to die of something. Do you really want to live to 100 if the rest of your life is like the last two years? I sure don't.
xkcd. It's good to get infected, as it gives you immunity.....Why would I want to acquire immunity?....so that you don't get....oh, wait!