Germany said on Sunday it had detected a total of three cases of the new Omicron coronavirus variant after a suspected infection in the western state of Hesse was confirmed, Reuters reports.

“The sequencing has confirmed the result — the suspected case which was made public yesterday morning is the Omicron variant,” Kai Klose, Social Affairs Minister in the state of Hesse tweeted.

On Saturday, he said a suspected Omicron case had been found in a passenger arriving from South Africa in Hesse, home to Frankfurt airport, one of Europe's busiest air hubs.

On Saturday, health officials in the southern state of Bavaria detected two cases of the Omicron variant.