Health Minister Vili Beros said on Saturday he was communicating with the relevant departments in order to be as prepared as possible for the new COVID-19 variant, adding that its appearance was due to the large number of unvaccinated people and urging them to get immunised.

“We are following the situation both in the world and in Europe,” he said after the new variant has been registered in South Africa.

Beros said that for now it was not known if this was an advanced version of the Delta virus nor how contagious and resilient to the vaccine it was.

The previous announcement by pharmaceutical companies that they can adjust the vaccine in short time “is promising,” he said, reminding people that the basic epidemiological measures, such as distancing, masks, disinfection, airing rooms and avoiding gatherings, are effective against this variant too. “And against new mutations – vaccination!”

The large pool of unvaccinated people has given life to the new variant, Beroš said. “We are smarter than that, it’s not too late to turn things around! Let’s listen to experts, let’s comply with epidemiological measures and let’s get vaccinated.”