Europe 1 with AFP 11:51 am, November 30, 2021

While several European countries including Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic have detected the new variant of Covid-19, called Omicron, on their soil, Dutch health authorities announce that it was already in circulation in the Netherlands on November 19.

Dutch health authorities said on Tuesday they had detected the Omicron variant in a test taken on November 19, a week earlier than previously estimated, and checks are underway to see how far it has spread.

"The Dutch Institute for Health and Environment (RIVM) detected the Omicron variant in two test samples that had already been taken in the Netherlands (...) on November 19 and 23, 2021", a- he said in a statement.

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