DOZENS of passengers who arrived in Amsterdam from South Africa yesterday have tested positive for Covid – amid fears over a new mutant super-strain.
Dutch authorities say 61 people who flew in on two flights are infected with the deadly bug.
They were among 600 passengers to arrive at Schiphol Airport on two KLM flights on Friday.
All of those on the planes were tested for coronavirus.
Further testing is now under way to find out if those infected are suffering with the Omicron variant.
Health chiefs said: “Travellers with a positive test result will be placed in isolation at a hotel at or near Schiphol.
“Of the positive test results, we are researching as quickly as possible whether they are the new variant of concern, now named ‘Omicron’.”
The Dutch government banned all air travel from southern Africa early on Friday.
However, health minister Hugo de Jonge said passengers already en route to the Netherlands would be allowed into the country after undergoing testing and quarantine.
Passengers on the two KLM flights, from Cape Town and Johannesburg, said they were kept waiting on the tarmac for hours.
“Vigorous applause because there is a BUS that has come to take us … somewhere,” tweeted New York Times journalist Stephanie Nolen, a passenger on the flight from Johannesburg who later said she had tested negative.
“Bus to a hall to a huge queue. I can see Covid testers in bright blue PPE far on the distance. Still no snacks for the sad babies,” she added in a second tweet.
The new mutation posed a “high to very high” risk to Europe, EU health chiefs have warned.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says there’s “considerable uncertainty related to the transmissibility, vaccine effectiveness, risk for reinfections and other properties of the Omicron variant.”
The strain has officially been named a “variant of concern” by the WHO.
More to follow…
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