BUFFALO, N.Y. – Different strains of COVID-19 are beginning to pop up around the world.

Kaleida Health epidemiologist Dr. John Sellick said it's common for single-stranded RNA viruses to mutate.

"The problem come if those mutations either allows the virus to spread more rapidly, cause more severe disease, escape our vaccines or treatments, or escape our testing," he said. "Then it becomes important."

In the case of the new COVID-19 strain first detected in the UK, which has been reported in New York, Sellick said so far there's no evidence it causes more severe disease but it may be more infectious.

"We need to keep looking at this and there is kind of a frantic pace of research right now trying to see just how easily it spreads and exactly what these individual mutations mean."

Dr. Thomas Russo, a professor and chief of the University at Buffalo division of infectious diseases, said if the new strains are more contagious, that would mean more cases of COVID-19 and subsequently more bad outcomes.

"I think this is a wake-up call for us to double down and be rigorous with our public health measures," he said. "Mask usage, physical distancing and hand hygiene will protect against this variant and any other variants that may arise in the future."

The doctors said it also appears so far that current vaccines and testing are effective for the mutated strains. However, there's a caveat.

"If it's more infectious, we may need to vaccinate a greater number of people to achieve herd immunity so therefore it's critical that everyone at this stage, even if you're not up for vaccination, learn about the vaccine," Russo said.

Both doctors said the medical community won't have all the answers about the new strains immediately and will continue to study them.