Amritsar: Seven passengers and a crew member who arrived here from the UK in an Air India flight tested positive for coronavirus on Tuesday.
Punjab Minister for Medical Education and Research O P Soni said those who tested positive for the infection will be quarantined.
Among the infected passengers are six men and two women, he said.
The Air India flight from London had landed at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ramdas Jee International Airport with 250 passengers and 22 crew members at 12.30 am last night.
India has suspended all passenger flights from the UK till December 31 in the wake of the emergence of a mutated variant of coronavirus there, joining several other countries that have imposed a similar flight ban.
Moreover, passengers coming from the UK through flights till Tuesday midnight will be tested for COVID-19 on arrival at airports.
Earlier in the day, some of the passengers protested against the authorities over the alleged delay in carrying out their coronavirus tests.
Their family members claimed that they were made to wait for hours.
The authorities, however, said the clearance might take some time as every passenger and crew member would have to be tested for coronavirus.
A team of health authorities deputed at the airport took samples of all passengers and crew members.
Amritsar Assistant Deputy Commissioner Himanshu Aggarwal said the sampling process started as soon as the flight landed last night.
He said the airport authorities had already informed their relatives about testing.
To a question on the protest by some passengers, Aggarwal had said, Usually, it takes five to six hours for clearance of all international passengers. But today it will take a few hours more and everybody should bear with us.