The Dutch gendarmerie announced on Sunday that it had arrested on a plane at Amsterdam-Schiphol airport a couple who had "
fled
" a hotel where passengers positive for Covid-19 from South Africa had been placed in quarantine.
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This incident comes after the announcement by the Dutch authorities that 13 people, out of 61 who tested positive for Covid-19 on the arrival of two flights at the airport on Friday, had been contaminated with the new Omicron variant.
"
The Dutch Royal Constabulary at Schiphol arrested a couple this evening who fled from a quarantine hotel
,
"
spokesman Stan Verberkt told AFP.
“
The arrests took place in a plane that was about to take off.
They were on a plane that was going to leave for Spain, ”
he added.
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The couple was handed over to the health authorities, according to the gendarmerie.
A spokeswoman for the Dutch health authority, Stefanie van Waardenburg, said the couple were in solitary confinement again, but not in the same hotel.
A few hours earlier, the Minister of Health Hugo de Jonge had assured that the Dutch authorities would enforce the quarantine by the passengers.
The passengers who test positive for Covid are almost all in the same hotel.
A handful have been allowed to self-quarantine at home.
The negative passengers were also ordered a home quarantine.
"
We will check that they respect these rules,
" Hugo de Jonge told reporters.
Police and security guards are standing guard around the quarantine hotel, a spokeswoman for the mayor said.