Fifty-two passengers on flight from Delhi to Hong Kong ALL test positive for Covid despite showing negative result

DOZENS of passengers on board a plane from Delhi to Hong Kong have ALL tested positive for Covid – despite recording negative results pre-flight.

While China has been bringing infection rates down, India has been ravaged by soaring numbers of coronavirus patients as hospitals buckle under the number of people being admitted.

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At least 52 people landed in Hong Kong from Delhi on a flight run by Indian airline Vistara on April 4 all have tested positive for Covid after being reported as negative before taking off.

People are only allowed to fly into Hong Kong is they present a negative test within 72 hours before departing, which is what all those on board the flight had done.

Authorities in Hong Kong have not revealed how many people were on the plane, but up to 188 passengers could have been on board, reports the Mail.

The positive results came to light during the mandatory three week quarantine measure enforced in Hong Kong.

Rashida Fathima, who on on the flight with her husband and two children, told the Wall Street Journal from her hospital bed she believes she was infected on the plane – despite wearing a face mask for the majority of the journey.

She has told how some passengers were coughing a lot, while others took off their masks during the flight.

It comes as:

• UK sends ventilators to India to help overwhelmed hospitals
• Harrowing video shows Covid patients gasping for breath in hospital
• IPL chiefs vow tournament will go ahead despite the crisis
• India threatens to 'hang' officials delaying oxygen supplies
• Cases could hit 500,000 a day as death toll mounts

There are several reasons why those on the flight all tested positive after being handed a negative result before take off, according to health experts.

Passengers could have been infected in India after the pre-flight test, or the results may have simply been false-negatives as the country continues to be overwhelmed by swelling numbers of cases.

It has also been suggested by scientists that those on board may have caught Covid at a quarantine hotel in Hong Kong, or a particularly infectious strain may have been spread during the flight.

Hospital workers in India are grappling with surging case numbers – with desperate Indians turning to Twitter to beg for oxygen as the supplies dwindle.

In recent days, Covid patients have reportedly been dying on the pavement outside hospitals in India – with doctors fearing infections will soon hit 500,000 per day as they hit a record peak for a fifth day on Monday.

One person is dying every four minutes in the capital of New Delhi, which has been particularly badly hit.

Some experts believe the number of cases could be up five times higher than the official cases show.

Hospitals are turning away patients and supplies of oxygen running short.

In response, people are bypassing the conventional lines of communication and turning to Twitter to crowdsource help for oxygen cylinders.

As the country contends with a Covid mutant "tsunami", bodies are being burnt 24-hours a day.

Bodies are being cremated through the night – contrary to Hindu custom which dictates no bodies be burned after sundown – to cope with the backlog.

The hold-up is so severe that families are having to wait hours in 35C heat before they can cremate their loved ones.

Funeral pyres have been sending smoke into the sky across the country non-stop.

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