Denmark has identified 33 infections with the new variant of the coronavirus that has been spreading rapidly in parts of Britain, according to authorities.

The State Serum Institute (SSI), Denmark's infectious disease authority, said in a report published that the cases had been found in Covid-19 tests carried out between Nov 14 and Dec 14.

Denmark, an international leader in genome sequencing, has so far analysed genetic material from 7,805 positive tests in that period, meaning the variant was found in about 0.4 per cent of the infections, Reuters reports.

Since just 13.5pc of all the positive tests in the period have been analysed so far, the SSI said that variant percentage could change.