The health authorities of the Netherlands have confirmed that they detected the first cases of the omicron variant a week before the arrival of travelers from South Africa and that they tested positive for covid-19.
The Institute of Public Health of Netherlands located the omicron variant in two test samples that had been collected on November 19 and 23, one week before the arrival of the two flights from South Africa with 61 passengers infected with coronavirus, including 14 cases of this new variant.
As reported by the Institute of Public Health this Monday, the samples collected for a PCR gave a special reaction in the tests to detect an anomaly in the peak protein of SARS-CoV-2, which “gave rise to the suspicion that It was about the omicron variant, “so they were subjected to a special analysis to confirm.
“On November 29 it turned out that the two samples were indeed the omicron variant. It is still unclear whether the affected people have also been to southern Africa,” explained the Institute, which has already contacted those involved in these tests to initiate an investigation into the circumstances in which they have been infected.
Last Friday, 624 passengers flying on two flights from South Africa were subjected to a coronavirus test on the same Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, and of the total, 61 tested positive.
Their samples were also analyzed and the presence of 14 cases of the omicron variant was detected.
“During the laboratory investigation different types of virus strains of the omicron variant were found. This means that the affected people probably were infected separately, from a different source and in a different place,” added the Institute of Public Health.
I veto the countries of southern Africa
Last Friday the Dutch government declared a ban on air traffic from several countries in southern Africa due to fears of the new variant.
In addition, he urged about 5,000 travelers who had returned from Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, since last Monday to take a test, even if they do not have symptoms of covid-19, and regardless of whether or not they are vaccinated.
In addition to a flight ban, southern African countries were “classified as very high risk areas”, which implies “an obligation to quarantine” and the submission of two tests to travelers from these countries, one of they must be less than 24 hours.
However, today it has been confirmed that the omicron variant was already in Europe before the first cases were detected in South Africa.
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