Just when two vaccines received emergency use authorization, the UK sounded the alarm due to a new COVID-related threat.

Experts discovered that the coronavirus has mutated again.

This time, it resulted in a strain with very high transmissibility than the original strain.

And to make it worse, this is not the last time the virus will mutate.

According to The New York Times, scientists aren't surprised about the mutations but they are worried.

Within a year, experts recorded thousands of tiny changes in the genetic material of the virus.

These are a result of its constant movement across the globe.

Some variants are more common in human circulation due to luck.

However, none of them boosted the virus in any manner.

The most likely reason for the changes is survivability.

As more humans develop immunity against it, the coronavirus looks for ways to spread easier or to better dodge the immune system.

Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said: "It's a real warning that we need to pay closer attention."

Here's what researchers identified in the UK variant.

It contains 20 mutations, including the ones affecting how the virus locks and infects human cells.

Muge Cevik, an infectious disease expert, linked these mutations to higher chances of transmission than the original strain.

Currently, the new strain has higher transmissibility of up to 70%.

That figure is only estimated in modeling. No findings yet from lab experiments.

In South Africa, scientists detected a similar version of the British strain.

It shared one mutation of that UK variant.

It's also found in up to 90% of samples genetically sequenced since mid-November.

So, what does it all mean?

While it can take years of mutation before the coronavirus renders vaccines useless, the world cannot afford to be irresponsible.

Scientists fear one thing: the genetic changes that will give the virus a big edge.

When that happens, antibodies and vaccines may become inefficient against such a deadly strain.

Right now, minor genetic changes appear to help the coronavirus.

One of those affects antibody susceptibility.

Scientists observed 69-70 deletions in its genetic code.

These are missing letters and will impact antibodies, which need exact matches.

This change has been identified in Danish minks, in Britain, and an immune-suppressed patient, who became less responsive to convalescent plasma therapy.

Their case was published in the journal medRxiv.