It is a real shipment of patients that was “delivered” Wednesday January 5 in India.
A flight from Milan landed in Amritsar, in the north of the country, near the Pakistani border, with on board ... 125 people infected with Covid-19.
All unmasked by tests carried out on their arrival on all travelers over the age of 19.
The good hundred positive cases were forced into isolation and taken care of by the Indian health authorities at the airport.
Read alsoCovid-19: France lifts the quarantine for those vaccinated from South Africa
But here it is: according to the BBC, some travelers clearly did not like the idea of being placed in quarantine as soon as they arrived, and left the police company.
In all, nine of them escaped from the airport without giving an address, and four more fled, this time from the local hospital where infected travelers were taken by ambulance - a total of thirteen fugitives. .
On the spot, the police chief denies having let down his guard and considers having been
"duped"
by the free riders.
These have aroused the ire of the country's authorities, while India is currently accusing a very strong wave of contaminations linked to the wave of the Omicron variant, and is recording hundreds of thousands of new cases every day.
The escapees are asked to present themselves before the next morning to the health authorities to begin their quarantine, failing which the police promise to
"publish their photos in the press and to file a complaint against them".
The visas of their passports have already been withdrawn, Gurpreet Singh Khehra, the prefect of Amritsar, told NDTV.
Fugitive epidemic
In reality, fleeing passengers are not the first to want to slip away in the face of all health regulations. In an escape as incredible as it was unexpected, told by the
Times
, a Spaniard and a Portuguese woman had also succeeded in deceiving the vigilance of the Dutch police at Schiphol airport, near Amsterdam, in order to escape the quarantine which they had faced. was also imposed after a positive test at the airport. They were eventually arrested
manu militari
on a plane about to take off for Spain. Back to square one...
In early December, Thais also did not appreciate that an Israeli traveler, suspected of having been infected with the Omicron variant, left the hotel where he was placed in quarantine before the result of his test. The Bangkok police set out in pursuit of him during a real manhunt lasting several weeks, before the fugitive surrendered himself to the police fifteen days after his escape. Admittedly, the two tests to which he was then subjected turned out to be negative - the viral load had had plenty of time to come down during his run - but the man had in the meantime become public enemy number 1. Not only end of his quarantine continued in detention, but the Thai authorities hear well theexpel with prohibition to return ...
ad vitam
.
Read alsoThailand reinstates quarantine for all travelers for fear of the Omicron variant
Elsewhere in the world, it is still the Spanish police officers who had launched at the end of November in a merciless hunt after the "disappearance" of a dozen Dutch tourists in a region neighboring Portugal.
All had tested positive and also forced into solitary confinement.
In Sialkot, Pakistan, fifteen travelers from South Africa had deceived the vigilance of a hospital where they were placed in quarantine at the end of December.
In Tasmania, the same crime had led an Australian straight to prison on Christmas Eve.
But these runs may soon disappear from the headlines of the news.
Already, airlines are calling for systematic tests to be stopped during flights, arguing that the level of circulation of the virus is so high that these tests no longer make it possible to curb contagions.
In the UK, vaccinated travelers no longer need to test negative before boarding.
A decision which, if emulated elsewhere in the world, might solve this midlife crisis.
