John Swinney refused to rule out cancelling international travel as he admitted the Indian variant will become the dominant strain in Scotland.
The Deputy First Minister and Minister for Covid Recovery said there were "encouraging signs" that the virus was under control across the country.
Speaking on the BBC 's Good Morning Scotland show, the SNP MSP revealed the vaccine is working against the strains currently in circulation.
Earlier today the first overseas flight to Faro in Portugal took off from Edinburgh with passengers not forced to quarantine on return due to its green status on the traffic light system.
It comes as the city of Glasgow remains in Level Three lockdown restrictions for another week in order to contain the spread of the virus.
On Friday, the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that Moray would move down to Level Two while East Renfrewshire would remain at Level Two despite seeing rising cases.
Swinney said: "The B1617.2, so-called Indian variant, is going to become the dominant strain in Scotland.
"That is a new variant of concern and we don't know the course that this virus is going to take so we have to continue to exercise caution although there are very encouraging signs that the measures we've put in place, the levels of compliance and the success of the vaccination programme are putting us in a stronger position."
Asked if a new variant emerged in the next month would mean the closure of international travel, Swinney responded: "It depends on the research and the clinical advice that we receive.
"What we are looking at very carefully in relation to the variants of concern is the effect they have, the degree of transmissibility within our society, the degree to with they essentially recirculate the virus.
"We have seen higher transmissibility in the more recent variants of concern, in the Kent variant and in the B1617.2, the so-called Indian variant, so we have to monitor that carefully.
"The encouraging news from the Public Health England study is that the vaccination that we have are very robust or just about as robust as they are in relation to previous variants in providing the necessary protection for members of the public."
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