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LAST UPDATE | 28 Nov 2021
THE DUTCH PUBLIC health authority has confirmed that 13 people who arrived in the Netherlands on flights from South Africa on Friday have so far tested positive for the new Omicron coronavirus variant.
The 61 people who tested positive for the virus on Friday after arriving on the last two flights to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport before a flight ban was put in place were immediately put into isolation while sequencing was carried out to establish if they had the new variant.
The public health institute said in a statement that testing was continuing on the samples.
Most of the 61 people who tested positive were put into isolation at a hotel near the airport, while a small number were allowed to sit out their quarantine at home under strict conditions.
Earlier, Australian officials confirmed that two overseas travellers arriving in Sydney tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The two passengers were among a group of 14 who arrived in Australia from southern Africa yesterday. Both were asymptomatic and vaccinated against Covid-19. The remaining 12 have been placed in quarantine.
Neighbouring New Zealand announced it is restricting travel from nine southern African countries because of the threat posed by the variant, and Japan widened its border controls to include more countries from the region.
Other restrictions
Tourist-dependent Thailand, which only recently began loosening its tight border restrictions to leisure travellers from certain countries, announced a ban of its own on visitors from eight African counties.
Similar restrictions took effect in the business hub of Singapore, which is barring entry and transit to anyone with a recent history of travel to seven southern African nations.
Sri Lanka banned disembarkation of passengers arriving from six African countries due to the detection of the Omicron variant, as did the Maldives.
Israel went further, barring entry to all foreign nationals, mandating quarantine for all Israelis arriving from abroad and red-listing travel to 50 African countries.
It also approved use of the Shin Bet internal security agency’s controversial phone monitoring technology to perform contact tracing of individuals confirmed with the new variant.
The tighter restrictions reflect steps rapidly taken by countries around the world to limit the spread of the Omicron variant just days after it was identified by researchers in South Africa.
The “act first, ask questions later” approach reflects growing alarm about the emergence of a potentially more contagious variant nearly two years into the pandemic.
While much remains to be learned about the new variant, researchers are concerned that it may be more resistant to the protection provided by vaccines and that it could be more transmissible than other strains.
Cases involving the Omicron variant have already been confirmed around the world, with the UK, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Israel and Hong Kong all reporting cases in recent days.
Australia quarantine
In Australia, the New South Wales health department said the infected travellers arrived from one of nine African countries that are now required to quarantine in a hotel upon arrival in Sydney – South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Malawi and the Seychelles.
New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister, Chris Hipkins, said the island nation is taking a precautionary approach.
From late tonight, only New Zealand citizens from nine African countries will be allowed entry, and they will be required to spend two weeks in a quarantine hotel run by the military.
Hipkins said officials are confident the variant has not entered New Zealand and they are well placed to keep it out.
Many countries have slapped restrictions on various southern African countries over the past couple of days, including Brazil, Canada, the European Union, Iran, and the US, in response to warnings over the transmissibility of the new variant.
This goes against the advice of the World Health Organization, which has warned against any overreaction before the variant has been thoroughly studied.
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Even in LC biology you learn that virus mutate as they spread through groups of people, coronavirus was always going to mutate again & when omicron become the dominant strain in about 6 months, something else will take its place.
I’m old enough to remember last Christmas the mass hysteria with main stream media about the more “Deadly” Alpha variant, and then 7 months ago the more “deadly” Delta variant.
The media are absolutely shocking … clickbait
@David Lee: …and the best way to combat this is to click into the article and then leave a comment. That’ll show them!
@Pseud O’Nym: ah touché
@David Lee: old enough to remember last Christmas??
@David Lee: Remember when we used to have chickenpox party’s….
@David Lee: except that Delta did end up being far more serious
@Tony Donoghue:
Bit hit for Wham in 1984.
@Pseud O’Nym: how else do you suggest he express his view on all these scaremongering articles…hire a plane & do some sky writing!
@Elaine Phelan: as did Alpha before it.
Very early days and much more research and caution needed but reports from SA indicate unusual but mild symptoms.
If this strain does become dominant and displace Delta but only causes mild symptoms then this could actually be excellent news.
Fingers crossed!!!
@Lee King Buckett: agree. Weaker yet more contagious seems like a win to me. Fingers crossed this turns out to be the case.
@Lee King Buckett: if true this would be excellent news. Where have you found out about hospitalisation rate ?
@Richard Williamson: Nothing on the hospitalisation rate yet, I was going off interviews with 3 SA GP’s who were speaking about their patients.
Lethargy, High pulse and generally feeling run down. No loss of taste or smell – all three described the symptoms as unusual but mild – no serious issues noted.
Caveat – small sample size, ages and underlying conditions not mentioned – early days. Caution and much more studies required.
@Lee King Buckett: excellent. Fingers crossed.
Have we learned nothing in these 2 years? MHQ won’t work, the new virus will spread either way. Wasn’t NPHET supposed to be disbanded?!
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: Seems to mewe are in something of a public health emergency. Why would you want the public health emergency team disbanded ?
@Tommy Roche: Because Ciaran here is the type to “go burn the observatory so this never happens again!”. He thinks shooting the messenger is the way forward.
@JusticeForJoe: No, because there’s a lot more evidence from the last two years to show that stringent restrictions don’t actually work. It’s also known that the virus isn’t as deadly as 1st feared, we have vaccines that work, and treatments that are improving all the time. We also see that other illnesses are pushed aside because of covid.
@Tommy Roche: Didn’t the government announce that they would be?
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: You couldn’t be more spectacularly wrong. Show me the evidence to show that “stringent restrictions…” (which are the only thing that has worked so far, anywhere in the world) “…don’t actually work” please.
@Ciarán O’ Donoghue: Do you still not realise this is a fluid situation and yesterday’s plans won’t necessarily still apply today? Or do you just think it’s all government trying to control de peepil?
I’d say it’s been in Ireland since early November.
@Twitruser2021: I’d say it was a Spanish sailor
@Mattress Dick: Ah no Sharon
@Mattress Dick: No, it was a Pakistani postman.
@Mattress Dick: ”I’m Pedro the sailor man…”
@Twitruser2021: Yes, since the incubation period is up to 2 weeks, it means his variant was flying around the World undetected for weeks.
The WHO want countries to let it spread before it is declared safe, how d.umb is that.
@Munster1: Can’t believe they didn’t consult you before making this decision, it’s almost like they don’t want to involve people who haven’t got a clue.
@Alan Biddulph: Clearly Isreal haven’t got a clue either, they’ve closed their borders. But you stick with the WHO buddy
@Munster1: Did you email the WHO with your info on Israel? Hopefully it’s not in their Junk folder.
@Alan Biddulph: while I agree about “experts”, I would argue that the more cautious approach would be to impose restrictions and loosen them once more is known, if necessary. If a barn is on fire, you don’t go around it examining the extent of the fire before letting the animals out. This doesn’t require you to be a virologist or an expert. It just requires you to have a modicum of common sense in a world where SARS-Cov2 is running rampant.
@Alan Biddulph: strange comment
@Munster1: what’s strange is you didn’t think twice about assuming that you, as an individual casually posting on the Journal, know better than the World Health Organisation.
And you’re oblivious when it’s pointed out…
@Damo: if you apply that logic to other issues you could never criticize anyone in power. The WHO dont get everything right.
@Munster1: fight the power kid…
@Damo: your the kid by the looks of your picture
@Munster1: oooh, sarky
Vaccinne certs for these passengers playing a blinder.
10 articles on covid with the journel past 24 hrs. Give it a rest !
@Marie Louise: Delete the app
@Marie Louise: simply scroll over the covid articles, the headline usually gives a good indication, if you don’t want to read them, they aren’t compulsory, there won’t be a test or anything.
@D. Memery: still over-satutation regardless of just scrolling past, not really the point.
Take 2 shots of jeyes fluid and ye will be grand.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has welcomed confirmation that new travel measures taken by the UK against the Omicron variant will not apply to the Common Travel Area (CTA).
I’m trying to keep a positive outlook because the negative one doesn’t bare thinking about. It’s possible that this variant won’t become the the dominant one. But if it does its also highly possible that while it’s more transmissible it will be less serious. This is what eventually happens with the vast majority of viruses. A viruses goal is to spread as much as possible. It doesn’t necessarily want to kill the host. So usually the go the way of the Spanish flu and develop much weaker strains. So this new one could well be the first dominant varient of covid-19 to actually cause less death and serious illness. Here’s hoping.
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