The Netherlands yesterday confirmed 13 cases of the new Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 and Australia found two as the countries half a world apart became the latest to detect it in travelers arriving from southern Africa.
Confirmed or suspected cases of the new variant have already emerged in several European countries, in Israel and in Hong Kong, just days after it was identified by researchers in South Africa.
The Dutch public health authority confirmed that 13 people who arrived in the Netherlands on flights from South Africa on Friday have so far tested positive for Omicron.
Photo: Screen grab from UFFICIO STAMPA BAMBINO GESU’ANSA
They were among 61 people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on Friday after arriving on the last two flights to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport before a flight ban was put in place.
They were immediately put into isolation, most at a nearby hotel, while sequencing was carried out.
Authorities in Australia said two overseas travelers who arrived in Sydney from Africa became the first in the country to test positive for the Omicron variant. Arrivals from nine African countries are now required to quarantine in a hotel upon arrival.
Meanshile, Israel moved to ban entry by foreigners and mandate quarantine for all Israelis arriving from abroad.
“Restrictions on the country’s borders is not an easy step, but it’s a temporary and necessary step,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting.
Ran Balicer, head of the government’s advisory panel on COVID-19, told Israel’s Kan public radio that the new measures were necessary for the “fog of war” surrounding the new variant, saying it was “better to act early and strictly” to prevent its spread.
Many countries have restricted or banned travel from various southern African countries — among the latest Taiwan, New Zealand, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Saudi Arabia. Places that had already imposed restrictions include Brazil, Canada, the EU, Iran and the US.
This goes against the advice of the WHO, which has warned against any overreaction before the variant is thoroughly studied.
US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said he would not be surprised if the Omicron variant was already in the US, too.
“We have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility ... it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over,” Fauci said on NBC television.
In Europe, much of which already has been struggling with a sharp increase in cases over the past few weeks, officials also were on their guard.
The UK on Saturday tightened up rules on mask-wearing and on testing of international arrivals after finding two Omicron cases.
Spain announced that it would not admit unvaccinated British visitors starting on Wednesday, while Italy was going through lists of airline passengers who arrived in the past two weeks after a business traveler who returned from Mozambique and landed in Rome on Nov. 11 tested positive for Omicron.
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