BERLIN (NYTIMES) – The highly mutated coronavirus variant known as Omicron is present in Germany, according to the Health Ministry for the state of Bavaria, which confirmed that two people infected with the new variant returned from a trip to South Africa this past week.

The two travellers, a married couple who arrived on a flight on Tuesday (Nov 23), tested positive for the coronavirus, Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek said in a public television interview on Friday.

Hours later, his ministry confirmed that rapid sequencing had determined that the couple were infected with the new variant.

In addition to those two, at least one person returning from South Africa was suspected of being infected with the Omicron variant in the state of Hesse, in central Germany.

The news prompted fresh concern at a time when Germany was already struggling to curb a brutal fourth wave of infections that had produced tens of thousands of new daily cases – more than the country has had at any point in the pandemic. Hospitals across the country were already struggling to accommodate a surge in Covid-19 patients.

“We have to break the Delta wave together now to be able to have some breathing space,” said Professor Oliver Keppler, the virus expert in charge of sequencing the new cases in Bavaria.

Germany was one of several European countries with suspected or confirmed cases of the new variant.

Belgium reported a case on Friday in a traveller returning from outside southern Africa. Italy said on Saturday that it had confirmed a case in a traveller who had arrived from Mozambique. The Czech Republic on Saturday detected a case in a women who had been in Namibia and flew back via South Africa and Dubai.

Denmark was looking into two suspected cases who had arrived from South Africa. And in the Austrian state of Tirol, one recently returned traveller is suspected of being infected with the variant, public broadcaster ORF reported on Saturday night.

Israel said it had confirmed one case and was testing seven others, according to Reuters.

The full sequencing on the suspected case of Omicron in Hesse will be completed early next week, said Professor Sandra Ciesek, director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital of Frankfurt.

The German government restricted travel from South Africa on Friday. As at midnight on Saturday, it was designated a high-risk “variant region”, which means airlines were allowed to transport only German residents to Germany. All those who arrive have to quarantine for 14 days.

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