New COVID-19 variant existent in Germany since November: media

BERLIN - The new coronavirus variant discovered in Britain earlier this month seems to have been present in Germany since November, German national daily Die Welt said Monday.

Researchers at Hannover Medical School detected the new variant in samples of an elderly patient who contracted the virus around November and later died, the newspaper said.

Germany reported its first known case of the new variant on Thursday in a woman who flew in from Britain, according to the health ministry of the southwestern state of Baden-Wurttemberg.