The “race against time” between the health authorities and Omicron is it not lost in advance?
The new variant of Covid-19 which has worried the world for five days, the first European cases of which were reported within this period, has in fact been in transit for more than ten days on the Old Continent.
Dutch health authorities claim on Tuesday to have detected it in a test taken on November 19.
Checks are underway to see how far it has spread.
To read also Omicron: where was really born this variant which anguishes the planet?
The Dutch Institute for Health and the Environment (RIVM) indicates in a press release that it “detected the Omicron variant in two test samples which had already been taken in the Netherlands (…) on November 19 and 23, 2021”.
On Monday, the Netherlands announced that 14 people, among the passengers of a flight from South Africa that arrived in Amsterdam on Friday, were carriers of the Omicron variant in the country.
The two samples in question on Tuesday were taken even before South Africa reported to the World Health Organization that it had detected this new variant on November 24, sparking a wave of panic and a ban on many territories travelers from southern Africa.
Ongoing studies on a link with southern Africa
Other cases of the Omicron variant have been detected in Europe in samples taken before the announcement from South Africa.
Belgium was notably the first European country to identify the Omicron variant on a patient “who came from abroad.
Tested positively on November 22, ”said the Belgian Minister of Health on November 26.
The UK has also reported several hundred confirmed cases, some of which may have been detected prior to South African reports as well.
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It is not yet possible to know "if the people concerned (by these tests of November 19 and 23) also went to southern Africa", indicates the RIVM, adding that they have been informed and that the health services municipal officials began to investigate their contacts.
"During the coming period, various studies will be carried out on the propagation of the Omicron variant in the Netherlands", promises the Institute.
With 16 cases now confirmed, the Netherlands has one of the highest contamination figures for the new variant in Europe at this stage.
The RIVM plans to review more samples from previous tests conducted in the country.
