The latest of the coronavirus variants reached the Netherlands last Friday, onboard two KLM flights carrying 624 passengers from South Africa to Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
The official recognition of this new variant on Wednesday, which remained nameless until the weekend, prompted a worldwide panic and restrictions on flights coming from South Africa.
The same flights ban in the Netherlands however, grounded two incoming jets from South Africa at Schiphol for additional passenger testing.
So far, 61 passengers from both flights tested positive for coronavirus — 13 of which had the Omicron variant, according to RTL Nieuws.
Now
Currently, everyone who tested positive for coronavirus (whether they had Omicron or not) on the two flights is in quarantine at a hotel near Schiphol or at home, says the NOS.
As for travelling, the NOS reports that all passengers over the age of 13 flying from South Africa to the Netherlands must now show a negative rapid test taken in the last 24 hours. This is regardless of whether the passenger is vaccinated or not.
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Extending their measures, KLM flights are only allowing EU citizens to fly from South Africa at the moment. 🙅🏼♀️
A concern?
For now, that’s a maybe. “The WHO has labelled it a ‘variant of concern’. We are concerned, but how much we should be concerned will become clear in the coming weeks,” Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge explained last week.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) research shows that this particular mutation is spreading much faster than other known variants, it is still unclear how sick people can get from Omicron, and whether our current vaccines are effective against it.
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Feature Image: sarymsakov/Depositphotos
