The variant of COVID-19 that was first emerging in India is now getting transmitted all across the UK after three recent cases were detected, which were not linked with travelling.

55 new infections with the COVID-19 strain have been traced all over the country, while has been India added to “red list” of Britain as of Friday morning.

The new variant, known as B.1.617.1, has a significantly double mutation of the spike protein, fears that vaccines will be less effective in preventing it.

A new report from Public Health England revealed that three of the 132 cases that has been recorded in the UK were among people who were not believed to have contracted it while travelling. Which means that the infections were found in Britain, and the COVID-19 variant is now being transmitted within the borders of the country.

Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Respiratory Sciences and Consultant virologist at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, Dr Julian Tang, told Sky News that the development was not surprising as by the time you find one of these cases, there may be well about five to 10 of them incubating. Trying to chase this virus is relatively ineffective.

Even with the South African variant, we saw it rising from a couple of hundred to over 500 very rapidly, and we can always expect this to follow the same pattern. The variant’s double mutation also suggests it can escape itself well in vaccine protection. However, background protection from overall vaccination will probably mean that they will protect you against severe disease and death, although we may continue to see transmission from variants like this for a long time. No evidence is currently available to determine that the Indian variant was associated with increased severity of disease. We don’t think that we need to be especially worried about this news unless we see the evidence of increased severity, or that it can escape the vaccine protection against severe disease and death, which has not been seen yet and hence we will not see a massive surge in new cases and deaths. PHE reports also concludes that the three cases which were not associated with travel were detected on 24 March, 27 March and 8 April and also revealed the total of 592 confirmed cases of the B.1.351 variant that first emerged in South Africa, are also believed to evade vaccine effects.