“The sequencing has confirmed the result – the suspected case which was made public yesterday morning is the Omicron variant,” Kai Klose, social affairs minister in the state of Hesse tweeted.

Yesterday he said a suspected Omicron case had been found in a passenger arriving from South Africa in Hesse, home to Frankfurt airport, one of Europe’s busiest air hubs.

Yesterday, health officials in the southern state of Bavaria detected two cases of the Omicron variant.

Restrictions on air travel from South Africa took effect today after it was classified as a virus-variant area.

This means airlines can fly only Germans to Germany from South Africa and even those who are vaccinated must spend 14 days in quarantine.

The new variant has caused alarm in Germany which, like many other European countries, is struggling to contain a fourth wave of the Covid-19 crisis, with a surge in coronavirus cases.