The highly contagious Indian variant of the coronavirus was found in Denmark, the health minister announced on Saturday.

"We have a situation in a residential area in Glostrup with the Indian variant. Intensive infection detection has been initiated, and there is close cooperation with the municipality," Magnus Heunicke said on Twitter.

State television DR reported that the variant spreads 50% faster than the UK variant.

Since Dec. 27, 2020, when the first vaccination started in Denmark, with a population of approximately 5.8 million, more than 1.8 million people have been vaccinated.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 3.4 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 166 million cases reported worldwide, according to US-based Johns Hopkins University.

The US, India and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries for infections and deaths./aa