The Netherlands identified the first case of the omicron variant in a November 19 sample, a week before South Africa sounded the alarm, news that comes amid growing concern over rising contagions in the European country, where they were reported 155,000 Covid-19 cases last week.
The Netherlands Institute of Public Health (RIVM) analyzed two suspicious samples collected for PCR tests on November 19 and 23 because they had an anomaly in the spike protein of the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus. The analysis confirmed that it is the omicron variant, detected and announced by South Africa on 25 November.
The municipal health services (GGD) are now investigating sources and contacts for the two cases to determine whether the two infections are linked and whether the people involved were in South Africa, although the laboratories that discovered these two cases are now analyzing test material. positive collected in the last three months.
One of these people had not traveled to southern Africa, so “probably contracted the virus in the Netherlands,” according to Chantal Reusken, a virologist at RIVM.
Regardless of the origin of this new variant of the Sars-CoV-2, the fear now is that the omicron variant has been circulating in the Netherlands for a long time, long before South Africa raised the alarm last Thursday.
On Friday, the Netherlands announced the suspension of flights from several southern African countries for fear of the variant, although there were two flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town on the way at the time of the announcement.
The 624 passengers aboard the two planes were held at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and tested as they traveled according to rules that applied before the African region began to be considered a “high risk zone”.
Vaccinated people did not need to be tested before boarding, and unvaccinated travelers could fly with a negative PCR test done 48 hours ago or an antigen test performed no more than 24 hours ago. Travelers from the southern African region were also not required to be quarantined.
In all, 61 people tested positive for the coronavirus, and in more tests over the weekend, the RIVM confirmed that 14 of the infections are of the omicron variant. It was believed that these cases were the first detected on Dutch soil, but this Tuesday (30) it was found that the variant was already circulating in the country a week before the two flights arrived in Amsterdam.
“During laboratory investigation, different types of omicron variant virus strains were found. This means that the affected people were likely infected separately, from a different source and in a different location,” explained the RIVM.
Before the existence of omicron became known, the Netherlands was already dealing with a strong increase in infections with the delta variant and an increase in hospital pressure, which led to the introduction of a “night block” in the country, with the closure of all non-essential activity from 5 pm every day.
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source https://pledgetimes.com/netherlands-identified-omicron-a-week-before-south-africa-alert/
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