Omicron COVID variant found in Netherlands before South Africa: Dutch authorities

Dutch health authorities on Tuesday said that the Omicron COVID-19 variant was already in Netherlands before it was alerted to the World Health Organization last week. The UN body, on Friday, said South Africa first reported the variant on November 24, further identifying it as a ‘variant of concern’. 

However, the Netherlands’ RIVM health institute found omicron in samples dating from November 19 and 23.

Also read: Explained: Omicron’s risk factors and measures to stay safe

Authorities in Netherlands had reported 14 Omicron infections after passengers on two KLM flights from South Africa tested positive on November 26. 

“It is not yet clear whether the people concerned (in the earlier cases) have also been to southern Africa,” the RIVM said.

It added that the people had been informed and municipal health services had now started contact investigations.

“In the coming period, various studies will be conducted into the distribution of the Omicron variant in the Netherlands,” the institute added. 

Also read: US CDC tweaks vaccine recommendation as Omicron scare increases

The Dutch announcement Tuesday further muddies the timeline on when the new variant actually emerged. Previously, the Dutch had said they found the variant among passengers who came from South Africa on Friday — but these new cases predate that.

It remains unclear where or when the variant first emerged — but that hasn’t stopped wary nations from rushing to impose travel restrictions, especially on visitors coming from southern Africa. Those moves have been criticized by South Africa and the WHO has urged against them, noting their limited effect.

Authorities in the eastern German city of Leipzig, meanwhile, said Tuesday they had confirmed an infection with the omicron variant in a 39-year-old man who had neither been abroad nor had contact with anyone who had been, news agency dpa reported. Leipzig is in the eastern state of Saxony, which currently has Germany’s highest overall coronavirus infection rates.

Also read: Omicron variant is cause for concern, not panic: US President Joe Biden

Meanwhile, Japan and France announced their first cases of the new variant on Tuesday.

French authorities confirmed its presence in the French island territory of Reunion in the Indian Ocean. Patrick Mavingui, a microbiologist at the island’s research clinic for infectious diseases, said the person who has tested positive for the new variant is a 53-year-old man who had traveled to Mozambique and stopped in South Africa before returning to Reunion.

Despite the global worry, doctors in South Africa are reporting patients are suffering mostly mild symptoms so far. But they warn that it is early and most of the new cases are in people in their 20s and 30s, who generally do not get as sick from COVID-19 as older patients.

With reports from the Associated Press