(The Hague) A new case of the Omicron variant was detected among passengers who left South Africa and diagnosed positive for COVID-19 on Friday upon arrival in Amsterdam, who are now 14 to be carriers of the variant, said on Monday the Dutch Minister of Health.
“Thanks to sequencing, it has now been confirmed in 14 people that it is the Omicron variant,” Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said in a letter to the Dutch parliament.
Mr de Jonge announced on Sunday that 13 passengers who left South Africa and diagnosed positive for COVID-19 on their arrival in Amsterdam on Friday were carriers of the Omicron variant.
They were among 61 passengers who tested positive upon arrival at Schiphol, out of 624 travelers who had landed in Amsterdam on Friday on two KLM flights from South Africa.
Analysis of the samples “suggests that those affected probably contracted the virus in several places and in any case not during the flight,” said de Jonge.
The results of other samples being analyzed are expected later Monday.
Dutch authorities have ordered these 61 travelers who tested positive for COVID-19 to remain in quarantine. Most of them are in a hotel near Schiphol Airport.
A couple tried to escape from the hotel on Sunday, but were stopped by Dutch border police on a plane at the airport. They are placed in isolation in a hospital.
One of the members of the couple had tested positive for the coronavirus, without it being known if he was infected with the new variant. The other, who tested negative, had chosen to stay with his or her partner.