Passengers who have already departed for the Netherlands must undergo inspection and quarantine upon arrival.
Amsterdam:
Dutch health authorities said dozens of people who arrived in Amsterdam on two flights from South Africa on Friday were likely infected with COVID-19 and that they are conducting further testing to see if people are infected with the Omicron variant. recently discovered coronavirus or not.
About 600 passengers arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport on two KLM flights on Friday and then faced hours of delays and testing due to concerns about the new virus variant. On the basis of initial testing, the Dutch Ministry of Health estimated there could be around 85 positive cases among the passengers.
“Travelers who test positive will be quarantined at a hotel in or near Schiphol,” the health authority said in a statement.
“Among the positive test results, we are investigating as quickly as possible whether they are the new variant of interest, currently named ‘Omicron’.”
The Dutch government banned all air travel from southern Africa early Friday. Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said that passengers who had already departed for the Netherlands would have to undergo screening and quarantine upon arrival.
Passengers on two KLM flights, from Cape Town and Johannesburg, said they had to wait on the tarmac for hours.
New York Times journalist Stephanie Nolen, a passenger on a flight from Johannesburg, wrote: “Hot applause because a BUS has come to take us… somewhere.”
“Bus come to hall for long queue. I can see people testing COVID with bright blue PPE in the distance. Still no snacks for sad kids,” she added in a tweet. Monday.
A spokesman for the health authority in Kennemerland, the Dutch region that oversees Schiphol, said the positive cases were being analyzed by a Dutch academic medical hospital to determine if they were a strain. new bacteria or not.
On Friday, the Dutch government separately announced the closure of bars, restaurants and most shops at night as the country grapples with a record wave of COVID-19 cases. into their health care system.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
