The discovery of a new coronavirus variant in the UK, which was detected in India, features two mutations that could be a cause for concern, an expert has said.
Public Health England reported that 73 cases of the B.1.617 variant have been confirmed in England as well as four cases in Scotland.
Officials have designated it a variant under investigation.
Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the variant featured two "escape mutations" - E484Q and L452R - that "are causing people to be concerned".
He added: "There's laboratory evidence that both of these are escape mutations.
"Basically, applying what we know about other human coronaviruses would suggest that this is going to be even less controlled by vaccine.
"But we don't know that for certain at the moment."
The variant is believed to be playing a part in the now surging outbreak in India.
On Wednesday India registered more than 198,000 new cases, more than a third of fresh infections registered across the world.
A spokesman for PHE told the Mirror enhanced contact tracing was in place and the situation is being monitored 'closely'.
Scientists first identified the Indian variant in March and it was described by the government in New Delhi as a 'double mutant'.
They suggested that the mutation had formed as a hybrid of two other strains.
Both mutations are found on the 'spike' that the virus uses to latch onto human cells and it shows worrying signs of being more infectious and less easily targeted by the immune system.
This development brings the total number of variants detected in the UK to 56 including the South African strain which is top of the UK's concerns.
A SAGE member, Professor John Edmunds, has warned if the South African variant keeps spreading uncontrollably in London, the city could face local lockdowns.
A Government scientist has warned that lockdown easing may have to be reversed If variants spread too quickly.
Professor Peter Openshaw said his fellow scientists were "very concerned" about the cluster of cases of the South African variant in the capital.
Prof Openshaw, a member of the Covid-19 clinical information network, told BBC2's Newsnight: "A lot of we scientists are very concerned about what's happening at the moment.
"I think we're all just hoping that the staged reduction in lockdown is going to be ok. It is being done reasonably cautiously but I think this is not good news.
"If we get rapid spread of the South African or other more resistant variants, it may well be that we are going to have to put the reductions of lockdown into reverse."
