Saturday, authorities in the western German state of Hesse announced that it is highly probable that the new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, is in Germany.

It is suspected that a person who has recently returned from South Africa carries the virus.

“Last night several Omicron-typical mutations were found in a traveller returning from South Africa,” Kai Klose, Social Affairs Minister, announced in a tweet.

He tweeted, “The Omicron variant has with strong likelihood already arrived in Germany.”

This comes after 61 of 600 passengers on two KLM flights returning to Amsterdam from Johannesburg tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday.

Although it is still unknown whether they were infected with the new strain, concerns were fuelled across Europe.