Alert to increase of covid-19 in Europe 1:00
(CNN) -
The Dutch police reported on Sunday, November 28, the arrest of a couple who had "fled" from a mandatory quarantine ordered by the government.
The couple, identified by AFP as a 30-year-old Spanish man and a 28-year-old Portuguese woman, would have arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport from South Africa on Friday, where last week the new variant of the omicron coronavirus was identified and detected for the first time. .
La Marechausse, the Netherlands military police, "this afternoon arrested a couple who had fled a quarantined hotel," police spokesman Stan Verberkt told CNN.
La Marechausse did not specify whether any of them had tested positive for covid.
It is also not yet known how the police discovered that the couple had left the quarantine hotel.
The couple had been on board one of two flights from South Africa to Amsterdam, in which at least 61 passengers tested positive for the virus, and 13 of those cases were confirmed to be of the omicron variant.
61 South African travelers test positive at Netherlands airport amid omicron variant concerns
The 600 total passengers on the two planes were quarantined at a hotel near the airport.
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The couple was detained "(on board) a plane that was about to take off for Spain at 6:00 p.m. local time (12:00 ET) and both people have been transferred to the GGD (Dutch regional health authority)," Verberkt added.
Dutch authorities will decide whether the couple will face charges for endangering public safety.
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GGD spokeswoman Stefanie van Waardenburg confirmed that the couple were among the passengers on a flight that landed at Schiphol from Johannesburg on Friday.
The health authority is conducting further tests on passengers to see if any are carriers of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus, Waardenburg added.
The Netherlands is among the countries that have imposed a flight ban in the southern African region (including South Africa) following reports of the new variant.
Amsterdam South Africa