Berlin: The new novel coronavirus variant discovered in Britain earlier this month seems to have been present in Germany since November, a media report said.
In a report published on Monday, the German national daily Die Welt said that researchers at Hannover Medical School detected the new variant in samples of an elderly patient who tested positive around November and later died, Xinhua news agency reported.
Germany reported its first known case of the new variant on December 24 in a woman who flew in from Britain, according to the health ministry of the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg.
The development comes as the country’s overall Covid-19 caseload has increased to 1,672,643, while the death toll stood at 30,508.
