Ljubljana - Due to a new Covid-19 variant detected in South Africa, the Slovenian Foreign Ministry advises Slovenians who are currently in South Africa to return home as soon as possible and monitor the situation, as increasingly many countries are introducing restrictions for passengers arriving from the area.

Passengers planning a trip to countries where the new B.1.1.529 variant of the virus has been detected are advised to postpone or cancel non-essential trips.

The Slovenian presidency of the Council of the EU called a meeting of the EU crisis response mechanism for this afternoon to agree on a joint response of members states to the new virus strain, the ministry said.

The situation with the new variant is being monitored, it added.

Some EU countries have already cancelled flights from the south of Africa because of the new strain and introduced additional measures for passengers entering the EU. Some have already banned entry to their country from the area for non-EU citizens and introduced an obligatory PCR test and a quarantine for their citizens.

Slovenia's National Institute of Public Health said today that the new variant, named Omicron by the World Health Organisation, had not been confirmed in Slovenia so far.