Dutch police on Sunday said they had arrested a couple on a plane after they “fleeed” from a hotel where passengers from South Africa who tested positive for Covid-19 were being quarantined. .
Dutch military police at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport “arrested a couple tonight who had escaped from an isolation hotel,” police spokesman Stan Verberkt told CNN.
The couple – a Spanish national and a Portuguese national – were arrested on a plane preparing to take off en route to Spain at 6pm local time (12pm ET), Verberkt said.
Verberkt said they are not being detained but are being isolated at another facility, adding that prosecutors will decide in the next few days whether they will be charged.
Public health agency (GGD) spokeswoman Stefanie van Waardenburg said the pair were among the passengers on a flight that landed in Schiphol from Johannesburg on Friday.
Several passengers on that flight tested positive for the new Covid-19 variant Omicron, Waardenburg said. The arrested couple did not test positive for the Omicron variant.
The Netherlands is among a growing number of countries imposing a flight ban over southern Africa.
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