a new, more contagious variant of SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19, in the United Kingdom in September 2020.By early December 2020, U.K.
scientists had become concerned that it could spread faster and more efficiently than other strains. They also worried about whether or not currently available COVID-19 vaccines would provide protection against this new variant.Researchers in several other countries have since detected the U.K.