Sixty-one passengers on two flights from South Africa tested positive for Covid-19 upon arrival in Amsterdam and their results are being examined to see if it is the new Omicron variant, Dutch health authorities announced on Saturday.
“We know that 61 of the tests are positive and 531 negative”said the Health Authority (GGD) in a statement, explaining that the people who tested positive are in quarantine in a hotel near the airport.
“The positive results will be quickly examined to see if they are related to the worrying new variant, called Omicron,” the statement said.
All passengers who test positive must be quarantined at the hotel for at least seven days if they have symptoms or five days if they are asymptomatic, according to the GGD.
Passengers who are not positive but who live in the Netherlands will have to isolate themselves at home and those who do not reside in this country will be able to continue their journey.
On Friday, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) stated that the risk of the new variant of Covid-19 spreading across Europe is “high to very high.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that Ómicron is “concerning” as well as the currently dominant Delta and those previously detected, Alpha, Beta and Gamma.
The new mutation was first reported by South Africa on November 24.. Since Friday, more and more countries have suspended travel to southern Africa or decided to shield themselves from flights from this region of the world.
