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Amsterdam — Dutch health officials confirm that 61 people arriving in Amsterdam on two flights from South Africa on Friday tested positive for COVID-19 and were infected with the recently discovered Omicron coronavirus. He said he was doing more inspections at the beginning of Saturday to do so. Mutant.
Approximately 600 passengers arrived at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on two KLM flights on Friday. Later, due to concerns about new virus variants, we faced a few hours of delay and testing.
The Dutch Ministry of Health said 61 tests returned positive at the beginning of Saturday.
“Travelers with positive tests will be quarantined at hotels at or near Schiphol Airport,” health officials said in a statement.
“We are investigating as quickly as possible whether the positive test results are a new concern, now named” Omicron. ” “
The Dutch government banned all air travel from southern Africa early on Friday. Health Minister Hu Ge de Jongge has already determined that passengers heading to the Netherlands need to be inspected and quarantined upon arrival.
Passengers on two KLM flights from Cape Town and Johannesburg said they had been waiting for hours at the tarmac.
A spokesperson for the health authorities in the Kennemerland region of the Netherlands, who oversees Schiphol, said positive cases were being analyzed by academic medical hospitals to determine if they were new strains.
New variants have been detected, just as many European countries are working on a surge in cases of coronavirus.
The Dutch government individually announced on Friday that bars, restaurants, and most stores will be closed at night as they seek to curb a record wave of COVID-19 cases that are overwhelming the healthcare system.
Toby Sterling
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