One of Scotland's top advisors on coronavirus has warned people could catch the new South African mutation even if they previously had Covid.
Edinburgh University public health expert Professor Linda Bauld warned Scots who have recovered from coronavirus that they could still be infected with the new mutation.
The South Africa variant is thought to be more transmissible, and tests have so far identified 105 cases of the specific variant in the UK.
Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said it may be possible for people to become infected with the South African variant even if they have had Covid-19 in the past.
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She told BBC Breakfast : "That is something that is causing concern around the world.
"In Brazil where there is a different variant - which was badly hit in the first wave - there was a lot of reinfection there and that's what also seems to potentially be the case with this variant in South Africa.
"South Africa is a country that has really struggled during this pandemic and we have had rates on reinfection there.
"If someone in the UK has been infected with Sars-CoV-2 and become unwell with Covid-19 in the past, it might be potentially, if they come into contact with this variant, they may become unwell again.
"That's why it's really important to do this surge testing and try and find the cases and support people to self-isolate."
Prof Bauld also discussed the issue of tougher border controls: "I think what the Scottish Government would like to do is take an approach similar to other countries where effectively a quarantine is applied to almost everybody coming in from overseas."
Prof Bauld added: "What I would be prefer to be called 'supported quarantines' where people are adequately supported in a hotel or elsewhere and checked up on regularly.
"The UK Government's suggestion is that will only be from certain countries and the details of that are still not clear.
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"The reality is that people won't necessarily travel directly - so even if you're saying people from South Africa have to quarantine, someone from South Africa might come via somewhere else."
She said that it would be "quite tricky" for Scotland to impose strict quarantine rules "unless the UK does this in a co-ordinated way".
Nicola Sturgeon said on Monday she would update parliament today (2 February) on travel plans specific to Scotland, including on supervised quarantine.
