Jerusalem: After the reports of an outbreak of the Covid pandemic again in China, which has now imposed strict restrictions in several parts of the country, the Israel government has announced that it has discovered a new variant of the virus.

The report released by the country’s health ministry said that already two people are infected from the new variant. The ministry has also claimed that it is not unduly worried about the variant.

According to the reports, the strain, combining two sub-variants of the Omicron version of the Covid-19 virus, dubbed BA.1 and BA.2, was recorded during PCR tests on two passengers arriving at Israel's Ben Gurion airport.

The ministry claimed that the variant is still unknown around the world.

"The two cases of the combined strain, which have been discovered so far, suffered from mild symptoms of fever, headaches and muscle dystrophy, and do not require a special medical response", the report said.

Meanwhile Israel's pandemic response chief, Salman Zarka has said that the risk is lower thus it is not a matter to worry much.

"The phenomenon of combined variants is well known," Zarka told Army Radio. "At this stage, we are not worried about it leading to serious cases".

More than four million people out of Israel's population of 9.2 million have received three coronavirus vaccine shots.