Malta has found its first case of the South African variant of Covid-19, Health Minister Chris Fearne said on Tuesday.

Fearne was answering questions posed by The Malta Independent following a press conference.

He also said that Malta now has over 50 cases of the UK variant of the pandemic as well.

The South African variant carries a mutation, called N501Y, which appears to make it more contagious or easy to spread. Another mutation, called E484K, could help the virus dodge a person's immune system and may affect how well coronavirus vaccines work.

It is the variant which is concerning the planet most at the moment, especially as the vaccine continues to be rolled out across the globe.

Fears over the vaccine’s effectiveness against the variant have prompted South Africa to pause its roll-out of the Astra Zeneca vaccine in particular, which offers limited protection against mild disease from the variant but which experts said should still protect against severe disease.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine however has produced a strong response to both the South African variant and the Kent variant which has emerged recently as well.

Moderna’s vaccine trigged an immune response to the South African variant as well, but it was weaker than the immune response to the base virus.