Punjab, which is already witnessing a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases, detected a cluster of infections in an international chartered flight coming from Italy, news agency ANI reported.
After testing travellers on board, 125 were found positive. Amritsar Airport Director, VK Seth, said that the flight had a total of 179 passengers.
On Wednesday, Punjab reported 1,811 new Covid-19 cases along with four fatalities. The total number of cases in the state went up to 6,08,723.
The death toll in the state stood at 16,657, while the total number of of active cases stood at 4,434.
In the backdrop of rising cases of the highly infectious Omicron, the Union Health Ministry had on December 25 sent multi-disciplinary teams and nodal officers to 10 states that were either reporting a surge or recording vaccination coverage below the national average. Punjab was among the 10 states.
In Punjab, the vaccination drive for the 15-18 age group has been hit by more than 16,000 paramedics going on strike, demanding pay hike and allowances
The staff on strike include 9,500 employees under National Health Mission (NHM), 2,500 multipurpose health workers (MPHW), 3,000 staff nurses on regular rolls and 1,200 rural pharmacists. The NHM staff include clerical cadres, auxiliary nursing midwives (ANMs), staff nurses, health workers and so on.