The new variant, “Omicron,” is affecting aviation in Europe, and more than 500 Danes are currently in seven African countries.
The emergence of a new variant of the coronavirus, called the Omikron variant, has raised concerns at the World Health Organization, prompting many countries to take precautionary measures in an attempt to prevent the arrival or spread of the new variant.
In the same context, the Danish government announced new travel restrictions when it comes to arrivals from South Africa and six other neighboring countries. Click here for more.
According to the Danish Foreign Ministry's response to TV2, there are currently about 440 people registered on the so-called Danish list for South Africa, and about 70 others in other neighboring countries that have been turned red on the Danish Foreign Ministry's travel advisory list.
A plane from Johannesburg, South Africa landed this morning at Amsterdam Airport in the Netherlands at 10:30, but all passengers had to wait for six hours before being allowed to leave the plane. Among them were three Danes, and one of the three Danes described the situation at Amsterdam Airport as pure madness. After the long wait inside the plane upon arrival, there were further hours of waiting to undergo coronavirus tests and overcrowding in the waiting hall. The passenger also told the source about the condition of tired children who had to sleep on the floor, in addition to passengers waiting for hours before some food was made available to them.
After a long wait and hardship, the three Danes were allowed to complete their journey to Aalborg Airport in Denmark, after their coronavirus tests came back negative, while 61 other passengers on the same plane tested positive. Dutch health authorities are currently examining the positive samples to see if any of them contain the new variant.
After some European countries decided to tighten travel restrictions or ban flights from the African countries concerned, many airlines cancelled their flights, making it currently difficult to book flight tickets from those countries to European countries.
