61 passengers on South Africa flights test
positive for coronavirus
Corona Society
November 27, 2021 - By Robin Pascoe Red Cross ambulances waiting to take those
who tested positive to hotels. Photo: Laurens Bosch
ANP Health
board officials say 61 of the 600 people on two flights from South Africa which
arrived at Schiphol airport on Friday morning have now tested positive for
coronavirus. Officials said on Friday evening they expected around 85 people
would prove positive, after initial tests suggested a 13% infection rate, but
told news agency ANP later the actual total is 61. All the passengers
reportedly had to show a negative fast test no older than 24 hours before
boarding the flight. The passengers were kept at the airport well into the
night while waiting to be tested and for the results. The Netherlands imposed a
flight ban from southern Africa on Friday morning because of concerns about a
new form of coronavirus, now named Omicron. Officials say as yet they do not
know if the passengers have the Omicron variant of the virus, which was first
identified by South African experts, and scientists at Erasmus University in
Rotterdam are now working on the samples to find out. The World Health
Organisation now says that the new variant, which has been identified in South
Africa, Botswana and Hong Kong (via a traveller) appears to spread more quickly
than other varieties of coronavirus. The European Centre for Disease Prevention
and Control has described it as a ‘variant of concern’ and said it ‘may be
associated with increased transmissibility, significant reduction in vaccine
effectiveness and increased risk for reinfections’. Passengers Passengers from
the two flights who tested positive were taken to a hotel where they will stay
until declared coronavirus free, officials said, unless they live alone in the
Netherlands, in which case they were taken home. People with a negative test
are also supposed to go into quarantine for at least five days. One of the
passengers on aboard was Stephanie Nolen, the New York Times global health
reporter, who was on her first plane trip in two years and provided updates on
the situation via Twitter. Although testing negative herself, she said she
wondered how long that would be the case, given the passengers were cooped up in
a small space at the airport, and many were not wearing face masks. ‘Probably
30% of people are wearing no mask or only over mouth. Dutch authorities not
enforcing. We’re just all in this unventilated room at hour 12, breathing on
each other,’ she said. Others spoke about the lack of information from
officials, and said it took seven hours before they were given anything to eat
or drink. Lorraine Blaauw, who runs a support group for South African families
in the Netherlands, told DutchNews.nl she had been contacted by several people
on board the two flights. ‘It was chaos,’ she said. ‘No-one knew what was going
on. There was no food, no milk for the babies. KLM provided 30 blankets for 600
people. The KLM crew just went home.’ The Kennemerland health board, which is
responsible for testing at the airport, said it understood the frustration
under passengers about the situation. ‘People who have just had a long journey…
were confronted with a situation we have never had to deal with before,’ the
health board said in a statement. However, the operation was necessary ‘in the
interests of public health,’ officials said. Earlier flights Even though
testing is required before flights, the Volkskrant reported earlier this week
that some 80,000 passengers on flights to the Netherlands have been seated
close to people infected with coronavirus. The infected passengers – some
11,488 in total – were spread over 9,343 flights. Passengers within two seats
of the infected person in all directions, and crew members who have been in
close contact the person involved, are considered to be at risk. Health
minister Hugo de Jonge has now urged everyone who recently travelled to the
Netherlands from southern Africa to get a test. Flight ban Although announced
as a flight ban, the Netherlands is not refusing to allow in flights from
southern Africa, and KLM has said it will continue to fly. However, only people
whose journey is strictly necessary, live in the Netherlands or are
transferring to another flight will be allowed to travel, the airline said.
Read more
at DutchNews.nl:
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