* Around 600 passengers arrived on two planes in Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, from Johannesburg yesterday
* Passengers have been put in quarantine hotels while authorities investigate whether they have been infected
* Countries across Europe closed their borders to countries in southern Africa yesterday to combat the variant
Alarms were today raised after one in ten passengers coming into the Netherlands from South Africa this morning tested positive for Covid and a wave of suspected cases of the new super-mutant variant were spotted in Europe.
Around 600 passengers arrived on two planes in Schipol Airport, near Amsterdam, from Johannesburg — the epicentre for the new strain that experts fear is 40 per cent more vaccine evasive than Delta — hours after travel bans were put in place.
Some 61 of those on the planes tested positive for the virus on PCR tests after they were stopped at the airport, despite having to provide proof of a negative lateral flow test taken within 24 hours before boarding the flight.
Read more ....
Update #1: Covid: 13 test positive for Omicron after S Africa-Netherlands flights -- BBC
Update #2: The Omicron variant is spreading across Europe with at least 13 cases identified in the Netherlands -- CNN
WNU Editor: It looks like how these tests are done in South Africa are not up to par, or people are committing fraud.
Update #3: This is probably true .... Dutch Cluster Suggests Omicron Has a Foothold in Europe -- Bloomberg