According to an update, Public Health England (PHE) has detected cases of the B.1.617 variant in the United Kingdom for the first time. Health experts first identified this variant in India. Currently, PHE classes it as a “variant under investigation.” In total, the organization detected 77 cases.

B.1.617 has two mutations in the spike protein. Scientists believe this might make it more transmissible and better able to avoid the body’s immune response.

According to Prof. Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia in the U.K., “These two escape mutations working together could be a lot more problematic than the South African and Brazilian variants, [which] have only got one escape mutation. It might be even less controlled by vaccines than the Brazilian and South African variants.”

However, at this stage, there is very little data on this variant. As Prof. Christina Pagel, director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at University College London in the U.K., explains, “We do not know yet whether it can escape existing vaccines, but it has several concerning mutations.”