600 Flight Passengers Held for 18 Hours After Possible Omicron Variant Exposure

Hundreds of passengers on two flights from Johannesburg to the Netherlands on Saturday were held on the tarmac for hours after they were informed that they’d been exposed to the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. Passengers were held in the terminal at Schiphol Airport for 18 hours while everyone was tested. 61 of 600 passengers tested positive for COVID-19. Photographer Paula Zimmerman kept a video diary of the chaos. She ended up testing negative, but later, all the passengers had to quarantine.