The omicron coronavirus variant was already in the Netherlands a week before South Africa reported the new variant to the World Health Organization (WHO), according to a Dutch health agency.
The variant was recently identified in retests of samples that were taken on Nov. 19 and 23, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, or RIVM, announced on Tuesday.
Revelations about the variant’s existence in Europe before it was reported in Africa add a new twist to questions about where and how the variant originated — and whether travel bans on South Africa and its neighbors are an appropriate response to the variant.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says his country is being punished for detecting the variant and informing global health authorities about it.
“You do not try and contain a virus through imposing bans unscientifically and indiscriminately,” Ramaphosa said on Tuesday, adding that measures such as testing all travelers are the best tools for combating the pandemic.
South African officials raised the alarm about the heavily mutated variant, B.1.1.529, on Nov. 24. Two days later, the WHO classified it as a variant of concern and dubbed it omicron.
The global health agency says the variant poses a “very high” risk because its mutations could help it spread more easily — and possibly infect people who might otherwise be considered immune to previous variants.
Abnormalities prompted retest of old samples; links to southern Africa are unclear
The Netherlands had previously reported more than a dozen omicron COVID-19 cases, detected in tests at an Amsterdam airport on Nov. 26, when 624 people arrived in the country from South Africa.
Dutch authorities scrutinized the older samples after initial PCR tests found abnormalities in the coronavirus’ spike protein — the omicron variant has 26 to 32 mutations in that area alone, according to the WHO.
The samples were taken at a municipal public health service test site, the RIVM said, adding, “It is not yet clear whether these people had also visited southern Africa.”
