Public Health is monitoring developments with a new and reportedly more infectious variant of the coronavirus. The mutation was first identified in South Korea and emerged this week in the United Kingdom.

Public Health Bureau of Communicable Disease Control administrator Annette Aguon told KUAM News, "I was reading up on that manufacturers for Pfizer and Moderna are already testing this vaccine against this new strain, because there is discussion that it may still be effective against this variant or mutated strain. If it's just a slight mutation, then it should still be effective."

Although Public Health is monitoring the situation they are waiting for the science and research as well as accurate data to determine whether they should continue using the vaccines that are already approved.

"Or is there a need to update it and that would be something similar to the annual flu vaccine that why every year we would have to get it because the flu virus does tend to change a little bit mutate a little bit over the time," Aguon said. "So you every year we get an updated version of the flu vaccine, just to see what's circulating around the world so that's with science and the vaccine manufacturers they use that data to develop the new annual flu vaccine. So that would be similar to where we continue to monitor, conduct surveillance throughout our region, nation and around the world."

The strains of the coronavirus from South Africa and Britain have not yet been identified in the United States.