61 COVID-19 cases found on flight from South Africa to Netherlands amid screening for new variant

Sixty-one COVID-19 cases were detected on an international flight from South Africa to the Netherlands on Friday, according to Dutch health officials.

The cases were detected among passengers on two flights that arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Friday as authorities were conducting testing for the recently discovered Omicron variant of the coronavirus, Reuters reported.

A total of 600 people were on the flights that arrived from South Africa. They were kept away from other travelers in the airport, and those who tested positive for coronavirus are being isolated in the airport, officials told the news outlet on Saturday.

According to a Dutch health ministry spokesperson, passengers’ health information and specifically whether or not any of the passengers were infected with the new Omicron variant will remain private until later on Saturday, Reuters reported.

KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France, which operated the flights out of Cape Town and Johannesburg, told Reuters that it was working to determine the rules that were in place on Friday to prevent people who have coronavirus infections from boarding flights.

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