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Composite of Sydney and Melbourne. (Photos: AFP/William West & Steven Saphore) - 

All vaccinated travellers arriving in Australia’s New South Wales and Victoria states from an overseas country must self-isolate for at least 72 hours.

Both states announced the new measure on Saturday (Nov 27) night amid concerns over the new Omicron COVID-19 variant.

“From 12am on Nov 28, all fully vaccinated travellers arriving in New South Wales who have been in any overseas country must travel directly to their place of residence or accommodation, get a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction (nose and throat swab) test and self-isolate for at least 72 hours," the New South Wales' Ministry of Health said on its website.

Victoria's government said on its website that from 11.59pm on Saturday, all new vaccinated arrivals and unvaccinated children under 12 who arrive in Victoria from overseas must quarantine at home for at least 72 hours.

Earlier on Saturday, Australia imposed new restrictions on people who have been to nine southern African countries.

The countries are South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, the Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique.

The government has banned non-citizens who have been in those countries from entering and will require supervised 14-day quarantines for Australian citizens and their dependents returning from these nine countries, said Health Minister Greg Hunt.

In November, Singapore extended the vaccinated travel lane scheme to Australia. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison also announced that Australia would reopen its borders to all vaccinated Singaporeans from Nov 21.

Three flights are due to fly from Changi Airport to Melbourne on Sunday - Singapore Airlines SQ237, SQ217 and Scoot TR18.

There are four scheduled flights from Singapore to Sydney - Singapore Airlines SQ231, SQ211, Scoot TR12 and Qantas Airways QF82.

New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said the new measures will keep people safe.

“Authorities around the world are still investigating the risk posed by this new variant,” he added.

“As a result, the New South Wales government will continue to put community safety first by taking these precautionary but important steps until more information becomes available.”

The new Omicron variant of COVID-19 has raised concerns about another wave of the pandemic.

On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the variant as being "of concern", a label only given to four variants to date. It was first discovered in South Africa and has since been detected in Belgium, Botswana, Israel and Hong Kong.

It could take weeks for scientists to fully understand the variant's mutations. Health authorities are seeking to determine if the Omicron variant is more transmissible or infectious than other variants and if vaccines are effective against it//CNA

The only KLM plane to arrive in Amsterdam from Johannesbourg on Saturday (Photo: ANP/AFP/Sem van der Wal) - 

Relieved passengers on a flight from South Africa streamed into Amsterdam's Schiphol airport Saturday (Nov 27), in stark contrast to the previous day when fears about a new COVID-19 variant sparked chaos.

Smiling relatives waiting with balloons and flowers greeted travellers from KLM's only flight from Johannesburg, who reached the Netherlands despite a growing international shutdown to curb the new omicron strain.

The mood was very different the previous day, when passengers aboard two flights spent hours mired at Schiphol while tests revealed that 61 out of the 600 passengers had coronavirus, with some possibly having the new Omicron strain which has governments worldwide worried.

"We were scared of having to go back into quarantine," said Mariam van der Veen, an air hostess who was on holiday in South Africa with her husband Alexander.

"The funny thing is ... nobody said anything to us," a visibly relieved Van der Veen, 58, told AFP.

Her husband added: "We heard there was a new variant and maybe it would be impossible to go back after the weekend. So we decided not to wait (in South Africa) under these circumstances and booked a flight home."

In all 161 people made it back Saturday aboard the sole KLM flight from Johannesburg, blending seamlessly with other arrivals from Istanbul and Atlanta as they plucked luggage from the conveyor belts.

At least 107 other passengers were stopped from boarding as they did not comply with new Dutch government rules hastily announced on Friday.

These bar entry to all passengers from southern African countries except for Dutch and EU residents who can show a negative Covid test taken within 24 hours of boarding the plane.

"Each person is dealing with an individual situation. We cannot say when these people will be able to return," KLM spokesman Remco Rous told AFP.

Since the emergence of the new strain, one country after another has banned flights from southern Africa in what New York Times global health reporter Stephanie Nolen - who was on one of the flights to Schiphol -- termed "variant panic."

On Friday passengers arriving at Schiphol had to endure hours of waiting - first on the plane and then in a cramped arrival hall "were people were breathing on each other" and many people failed to wear face masks, Nolen tweeted.

Dutch health authorities said on Saturday that some of the 61 who tested Covid positive and are now in hotel quarantine "probably" had the new variant.

"This was an extraordinary situation, unique, because the measures changed while people were on the plane," said Stefan Donker, spokesman for Schiphol.

"Coronavirus is something unexpected and it proves to be always more unexpected," he told AFP.

While passengers who missed connecting flights because of Friday evening's hold-up were fuming, those arriving on Saturday had a much smoother transit -- and those whose destination was the Netherlands were hugely relieved//CNA

FILE PHOTO: Tourists enjoy on the beach as mobile coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination points have been installed by Spain's Valencia Health Ministry in Benidorm, Spain, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Eva Manez - 

British tourists will be admitted to Spain from next month only if they can show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, according to a Spanish government bulletin published on Saturday (Nov 27) as the country tightened travel restrictions amid concern about the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

Until now, Britons were admitted to Spain if they could show proof they had been fully vaccinated against coronavirus or a negative PCR test result taken up to 72 hours before arriving.

"The appearance of new variants causing (coronavirus) obliges an increase in restrictions," with regard to people from the UK and Northern Ireland, said the announcement in the Bulletin of State.

The new measure comes into force from Wednesday, Dec 1.

"This will affect British residents but not British people who are resident in Spain," a spokeswoman for Spain's Industry, Trade and Tourism said.

About 300,000 Britons have residency in Spain, making it the largest group of UK citizens in Europe outside Britain.

Spain restricted flights from South Africa and Botswana on Friday following similar decisions by other European governments//CNA

People queue outside a vaccination centre as the spread of COVID-19 continues in Frankfurt, Germany, Nov 22, 2021. (File photo: Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach) - 

The Omicron variant of COVID-19 has probably arrived in Germany, a minister in the western state of Hesse said on Saturday (Nov 27) after mutations were found in a passenger arriving from South Africa.

"Last night several Omicron-typical mutations were found in a traveller returning from South Africa," tweeted Kai Klose, social affairs minister in Hesse, home to Frankfurt airport, Germany's biggest hub and one of Europe's busiest airports.

He added that a full sequencing of the variant was being carried out and that the person was isolating, and he urged anyone who had travelled from South Africa in the last few weeks to limit contacts and get tested.

The new variant has been found at a time when Germany and many other European countries are grappling with a surge in coronavirus cases.

Germany recorded 67,125 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases said, and more than 100,000 people have died with COVID-19.

Germany is declaring South Africa a virus-variant area, meaning airlines are allowed to fly only Germans to Germany from South Africa, a source told Reuters on Friday. Even those who are vaccinated must spend 14 days in quarantine.

Earlier, Dutch health officials said they had detected 61 COVID-19 cases among people who flew from South Africa on Friday and are trying to establish whether any were infected with the Omicron variant//CNA