Couple breaks quarantine and flight plane at Schiphol | Inland

The couple – a Spanish man and Portuguese woman – were detained ‘without violence’ when they were about to leave the country: they were apprehended in a waiting plane. “Both persons have been transferred to the GGD,” the Marechaussee reported on social media. They wanted to fly to Spain.

A spokesperson says that it concerns the hotel in the Kennemerland region where travelers from South Africa who have tested positive are in isolation. Private security guards at the hotel ensure that the guests who must remain in isolation also comply with this. Outside, the police and Marechaussee ensure that no one enters the hotel who has no business being there.

The couple has been placed in isolation in a hospital somewhere in the Netherlands, a spokesperson for Mayor Schuurmans of Haarlemmermeer reported to NH Nieuws. It is not clear whether the couple was taken to hospital because of symptoms of illness or because of ‘risk of escape’. The spokesperson says that he cannot say “for privacy reasons”.

The couple who tested positive could not be stopped earlier because there was no legal ground for it. That is what the mayor of Haarlemmermeer, Marianne Schuurmans, tells in Good morning Netherlands on NPO 1. “There is security present in the hotel, but it is true that people stay there completely voluntarily. Security guards advised the couple not to leave, but there was no legal title to hold them yet. As mayor and chairman of the Security Region, I still had to take care of that at the time. We really did not expect that people would flee,” says Schuurmans.

The duo could possibly still be prosecuted for violating the quarantine, up to years in prison. The hotel where the couple was in isolation did not want to say anything about the matter on Sunday evening.

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Omicron now also in Canada and possibly France

In Canada, corona infections with the omicron variant were identified for the first time on Sunday, the Ministry of Health of the Province of Ontario reported. It concerns two people who have recently been to Nigeria. Both are now in quarantine.

France may be the next country to confirm omicron infections. The health ministry there reported eight “possible” cases on Sunday, which must be confirmed in the coming days as the omicron variant. These are people who had come to France from southern Africa, the ministry said.

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