National Institute for Public Health and Environment (RIVM), the Netherlands’ apex public health agency, has revealed that the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus was already spreading in the country before South Africa detected it and broke the news.
In an official statement, RIVM said that the variant has been detected in two test samples that were obtained on 19 and 23 November respectively while South Africa announced its detection only a day after the second sample was taken.
It has not been determined yet whether these two people had traveled to South Africa or any of its neighboring countries before 19 and 23 November RIVM’s statement noted, adding that both individuals have been informed about positive Omicron diagnosis and ordered to quarantine while their contacts are being traced in an attempt to contain the transmission of the most infectious strain to date.
RIVM’s statement comes after 14 people who traveled on flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town were diagnosed with Omicron variant after arriving at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on 26 November.
Overall 600 passengers arrived in the Netherlands from South Africa on 26 November, of which 61 were diagnosed with Coronavirus. All of them have been quarantined in the Netherlands for further assessment.
RIVM has also decided to trace and contact more than 5,000 passengers who arrived in the Netherlands from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, or Zimbabwe.
On 28 November, the Dutch government imposed strict Coronavirus restrictions as a preemptive measure to contain the transmission of the resurging viral infection despite 85% of its eligible population being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Notwithstanding the announcement of RIVM, South Africa still remains the country from where the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus first emerged because it was detected in the genomic sequencing of the samples taken from all over the country between 14-16 November.
On 24 November, South Africa’s Network for Genomic Surveillance (NGS) announced that it had detected a new strain of COVID-19 with more than 50 mutations, with 30 of them being on the spike protein, the part of the virus that attaches to the cells to spread in the body and that all COVID-19 vaccines target to neutralize the virus.
NGS’ announcement concerned public health agencies worldwide as they feared the Omicron variant could easily evade the immunity offered by existing COVID-19 vaccines because its spike protein is significantly different from the one in the original Coronavirus strain that all vaccines are based on.
Since 24 November, the Omicron variant has been detected in more than 20 countries including Australia, Canada, the UK, and Japan, with most of them tightening COVID-19 restrictions and banning travel to and from South Africa to curb the spread of the new strain.
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