Spahn: UK variant makes up a fifth of German cases

Germany's health minister said Wednesday the variant of the coronavirus first detected in Britain now accounts for more than a fifth of all positive tests in the country. Jens Spahn told reporters in Berlin that the share of the variant has increased from 6% to more than 22% in two weeks.Spahn said this showed the share of the variant roughly doubles each week, a trend also seen in other countries.

Scientists say the variant first found in Britain appears to spread more easily and is likely more deadly than the original virus. Spahn said it can be expected that the U.K. variant will become the dominant variant in Germany soon.The health minister also urged those "who have not yet been vaccinated are vaccinated quickly so that as many people as possible receive protection."

He said that a total of 10 million vaccines will have been delivered by the end of next week.Germany has seen over 66,000 deaths in the pandemic and recently put strong controls on its borders with Austria and Italy's Tyrol region to try to keep virus variants from spreading further.