A German regional official has said that health authorities have identified the first suspected case in the country of the new Covid-19 variant, in a person who returned from South Africa, AFP reports.

“The Omicron variant has with strong likelihood already arrived in Germany,” Kai Klose, social affairs minister in the western state of Hesse, tweeted, referring to the strain first detected in southern Africa.

Klose said that tests late on Friday on the traveller who had returned to Germany from South Africa revealed “several mutations typical of Omicron”. “As there is this strong suspicion, the person has been isolated at home. The full sequencing is still to be completed.”