According to local reports, police in the Netherlands arrested a couple attempting to escape a quarantine hotel after returning from visiting South Africa.
The couple, a Spanish man and Portuguese woman, boarded a flight to Spain at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Sunday night but was stopped by Dutch national police.
“The arrests took place in a plane that was about to take off. Both persons have been transferred to the GGD,” the national police wrote on Twitter. The GGD is the country’s public health body.
The couple had fled from their quarantine hotel at 06:00 pm local time on Sunday. They were among 61 people being held in the hotel after testing positive for Covid on their return from South Africa.
As of Monday, 13 of those cases have been identified as the Omicron variant, local media reported.
It is not known which variant the couple tested positive for, or whether they were on the same flight back to Amsterdam as any of the 13 people who tested positive for the Omicron variant.
The couple were able to leave their quarantine hotel with ease, as occupancy is voluntary and not legally enforced in the Netherlands.
“There is security present in the hotel, but it is true that people stay there completely voluntarily,” said Marianne Schuurmans, the mayor of Haarlemmermeer.
“Security guards advised the couple not to leave, but there was no legal title to hold them yet.
“We really did not expect that people would flee.”
The pair could be prosecuted for violating quarantine.
Sources: Yahoo, Business Insider
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