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LAST UPDATE | 27 Nov 2021
TWO CASES OF the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Germany, regional officials have said.
The infected individuals were travellers who arrived at Munich airport from South Africa.
“Two suspected cases of the new virus variant Omicron classified by the World Health Organisation as a variant of concern have been confirmed in Bavaria,” the health ministry of the southern state said in a statement.
The infected people pair arrived back in Germany on Wednesday and have been isolating at home since receiving positive PCR test results for coronavirus, the ministry added.
A ministry spokeswoman said that, after reading news reports about the new strain, the people “proactively sought an examination for the variant”.
She said that in addition, two foreign passengers who arrived in Bavaria on a flight from Cape Town on Friday had tested positive for coronavirus and authorities were now investigating whether they were also infected with the new strain.
The report from Bavaria came after health officials in the western German state of Hesse identified the country’s first suspected case of the new variant in a person who also returned from South Africa.
The person, who was fully vaccinated against coronavirus, developed symptoms “in the course of the week” and was then tested.
Final results of gene sequencing are expected “in the coming days”.
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who is expected to be sworn in as successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel early next month, stressed Saturday that his coalition would do “everything necessary” to fight “corona and Omicron”.
“There is nothing which can’t be considered,” he tweeted, as calls grew louder for mandatory coronavirus vaccinations and new shutdown measures.
Belgium said on Friday it had detected the first announced case in Europe of the new Covid-19 variant, in an unvaccinated person returning from abroad.
Meanwhile Britain on Saturday confirmed its first two cases of the new Omicron strain, which the World Health Organisation has declared to be a variant of concern.
EU officials agreed on Friday to urge all 27 nations in the bloc to restrict travel from several southern African nations, a policy Germany has already announced.
Health authorities in the Netherlands have said that 61 passengers aboard two flights from South Africa tested positive for Covid-19 and the results were being examined for the new Omicron variant.
The positive cases are being quarantined in a hotel near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, where the approximately 600 people on the planes from Johannesburg spent hours waiting yesterday.
“We now know that 61 of the results were positive and 531 negative,” the Dutch Health Authority (GGD) said in a statement.
All passengers who tested positive must stay in hotel quarantine for seven days if they show symptoms and for five days if they do not, the GGD said.
Passengers who tested negative, but are remaining in the Netherlands, are expected to isolate at home.
“We understand that people are frustrated by this,” the statement added, “people have just made a long trip with the idea that they will shortly be home,” it said.
“Instead just after landing, they are confronted with a situation we have never before experienced in the Netherlands, namely that people have to be tested at Schiphol and are forced to wait until they get a result.”
Those who do not live in the Netherlands can “continue their journey”, it said.
Dutch national carrier KLM said it would continue to operate flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town “in compliance with the stricter protocol.”
This meant that entry was banned to all passengers except for Dutch and EU residents, who must show a negative PCR test and self-quarantine on arrival.
“KLM is taking the situation very seriously and will continue to prioritise the safety of passengers and crew,” the airline said in a statement, adding “it will therefore impose strict on-board safety requirements for passengers and crew.”
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I stopped reading at “85% of jobs available in 2030 haven’t been invented yet”. There’s slightly more than 8 years left in that prediction and I doubt if it’s anywhere near true. The prediction itself is 5 years old so we should be close to 40% new jobs never before heard of. (And probably that’s 100% in the private sector because government hasn’t changed much since the 19C.)
Maybe covid slowed it down.
My prediction for 2030 – there will be construction workers, shop workers, plumbers, electricians, drivers, nurses, port workers, chefs, waitress, government workers, accountants, real estate agents, accounts and office workers in general (most of whom will be doing what they do now). I’m sure there will be some new jobs, too
The tech industry is full of hype.
@john smith iv: Totally agree. F$(k coding. Science and nature all the way.
@john smith iv: naw, they might change the names but they’ve already been invented ,, people are getting more niche that’s all. We are still going to need plumbers electricians etc.. still need farmers , doctors the world has always moved on.. even without us on it..
Stick to farming. Energy crises are guan be common.
We also need artists jewellery makers, cabinet makers, singers, songwriters, writers, poets, philosophers, naturalists, palaeontologists, dreamers, inventors, sculptors, architects, blacksmiths, farriers.
It’s a bad idea to focus on STEM as if those subjects were an end in themselves.
@Nick Caffrey: While I wholeheartedly agree we need people in all of those roles, the reality is that digital skills are hugely beneficial or maybe even required for most of them going forward.
Many design and craft roles can use digital skills to support or improve their business.
The ability to programme in a language like Python opens vast new landscapes of expression to artists, jewelers and architects.
The best explorations of the limits of digital tools like CAD, CNC machines and 3D printers that I’ve seen are by artists and craftspeople thinking outside the box.
In fact there are ongoing projects in Ireland looking opening opportunities at this area (Craft 4.0 and iAtelier)
Digital skills are not just STEM, they can be part of STEAM with arts in the mix.
have your say