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 teted 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.
The new strain of Coronavirus created panic in the world after infected people were found in UK.
UK returnees to a numbe of countries, including India, were also found infected by the new virus.
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