Dutch police arrest couple who left quarantine

A couple from Spain was arrested Sunday in The Netherlands after they tested positive for COVID-19 and broke quarantine when they boarded an airplane headed for Spain, The Associated Press reported. 

Dutch police detained the couple for violating isolation orders issued by the head of the local security authority.

“Quarantine is not obligatory, but we assume people will act responsibly,” said police spokesperson Petra Faber, according to the AP. 

“These people, they are now in enforced isolation no longer in our municipality but in a hospital elsewhere in the Netherlands,” Faber added.

According to Dutch travel regulation,”if a coronavirus test shows that you are infected, you must self-isolate, even if you are protected against coronavirus.” 

Privacy rules prevent Dutch authorities from releasing more details about the incident, including whether the couple had tested positive for the new COVID-19 variant, omicron, the AP noted. 

On Sunday, Dutch authorities confirmed that 13 people entering the Netherlands from South Africa by plane had tested positive for the omicron strain of COVID-19.

Marianne Schuurmans — the head of the local security authority — told local media “it is incomprehensible that people who had tested positive would do this.”