The coronavirus’s mutated variant recently discovered in the UK was already in Germany in November, German health officials said Tuesday.
The much more contagious variant was discovered in a patient from the north who eventually died of Covid-19.
Researchers have found “the variant of the B1.1.7 virus in a person infected in November,” the Lower Saxony State Ministry of Health said in a statement.
That variant is the same one that “is responsible for a large share of the infections identified in southern England”, also stated in that statement.
The mutated variant was found in an elderly patient with underlying health problems who eventually died. His wife also became infected but survived.
The couple may have become infected after their daughter returned from a trip to Britain in mid-November, where she was “most likely” infected with the new variant.