THE HAGUE, Nov 29 — Dutch border police said yesterday they arrested a couple on a plane after they "fled” from a hotel where Covid-19 positive passengers from South Africa were being quarantined.

The drama came after Dutch authorities said that 13 of out of 61 people found with coronavirus on two flights that arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on Friday had been infected with the new Omicron variant.

"The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee at Schiphol has arrested a couple this evening who had fled from a quarantine hotel,” force spokesman Stan Verberkt told AFP.

"The arrests took place in a plane that was about to take off. They were on a plane that was about to depart for Spain at around 6:00 pm,” he added.

The pair had been handed over to the public health authority, the force said.

Public health authority spokeswoman Stefanie van Waardenburg said the couple was back in isolation, but not at that hotel.

Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge had said just hours earlier that authorities in the Netherlands would ensure that people obeyed quarantine rules.

The Covid-positive passengers are almost all at the hotel while a handful have been allowed to go into home quarantine. Passengers who tested negative have also been ordered into home quarantine.

"We will control whether they keep to those rules,” de Jonge told reporters.

Police and security guards were on guard at the quarantine hotel, a spokeswoman for the local mayor said earlier.

"The security is there for a reason,” the spokeswoman said. — AFP