Is the new Covid-19 strain in the UK more dangerous? Are vaccines effective? Many countries, including India, have halted flights to the UK, after its Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a new strain of the coronavirus that is spreading through the country is 70 per cent more infectious than the original. How concerned should one be? There is no evidence to support if this variant is more dangerous. Nevertheless, a faster rate of transmission means more people could get infected than before. This in turn could lead to an added burden on an already strained healthcare system, the writer of the article says.