The Omicron Variant Found In Europe A Week Before South Africa Reported It
The National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), the main Dutch health agency, announced that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus had already spread in the country before South Africa discovered it and don’t spread the news.
In an official statement, the RIVM announced that the variant had been detected in two test samples obtained on 19th and 23rd November respectively, while South Africa announced its detection just one day after the second sample was taken.
The RIVM statement has not yet established whether the two had traveled to South Africa or any of its neighboring countries before 19th and 23rd November.
The RIVM statement comes after 14 passengers arriving on flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town were diagnosed with the Omicron variant after arriving at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on 26th November.
A total of 600 passengers from South Africa arrived in the Netherlands on 26th November, 61 of whom were diagnosed with coronavirus. All have been quarantined in the Netherlands for further analysis.
The RIVM also decided to track and contact more than 5,000 passengers who arrived in the Netherlands from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, or Zimbabwe.
On November 28, the Dutch government imposed strict restrictions on the coronavirus as a preventive measure to contain the transmission of the resurrection viral infection, despite the fact that 85% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Despite the RIVM’s announcement, South Africa remains the country from which the Omicron variant of the coronavirus first appeared, as it was detected during genome sequencing of samples from across the country between the 14th and 16th November.
On 24th November the South African Genomic Surveillance Network (NGS) announced that it had discovered a new strain of COVID-19 with more than 50 mutations, including 30 in the spike protein, the part of the virus that is the virus. Cells spread throughout the body and all COVID-19 vaccines aim to neutralize the virus.
Also Read: President Biden Announces COVID-19 Vaccine Mandatory For Nursing Home Workers
The NGS announcement hit health officials around the world over concerns that the Omicron variant could easily bypass the immunity of existing COVID-19 vaccines because its spike protein is significantly different from that of the strain of coronavirus d origin on which all vaccines are based.
As of November 24, the Omicron variant had been discovered in more than 20 countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan, most of which have tightened COVID-19 restrictions and banned travel to and from ‘South Africa to slow the spread of the new tribe.