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- BBC News World
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Updated 18 minutes
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Image source, Getty Images
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The new labels will not replace existing scientific names.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Tuesday a new naming system for variants of Covid-19.
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From now on, the WHO will use Greek letters to refer to the variants first detected in countries such as the United Kingdom, South Africa and India.
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The UK variant, for example, is labeled Alpha, South Africa’s Beta, and India Delta.
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The one in Brazil was named as the Gamma variant.
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The WHO noted that the move was to simplify discussions, but also to help remove some of the stigma from names.
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Earlier this month, the Indian government criticized the naming of variant B.1.617.2, first detected in that country last October, as the “Indian variant”, although the WHO had never officially labeled it as such.
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“No country should be stigmatized for detecting and reporting variants,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s covid-19 technical leader, tweeted.
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The organization is also calling for “robust surveillance” of the variants and the sharing of scientific data to help stop the spread.
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The letters will refer to both the variants that cause concern and the variants of interest.
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WHO published a full list of names on its website.
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These greek letters they will not replace existing scientific names.
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Image source, Getty Images
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Vietnam has detected what appears to be a combination of two variants.
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If more than 24 variants are officially identified, the system runs out of Greek letters and a new naming program will be announced, Van Kerkhove told STAT News in an interview.
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“We are not saying that B.1.1.7 is replaced, but actually it is about helping in the dialogue with the average person,” said the expert. “So that in public discourse we can discuss some of these variants in more user-friendly language.”
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On Monday, a scientist advising the UK government said the country sI was in the early stages of a third wave of coronavirus infections, partly driven by the Delta or Indian variant.
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It is believed to spread more rapidly than the Alpha variant (UK; Kent), which was responsible for the increase in cases in the UK during winter.
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Vietnam, meanwhile, has detected what appears to be a combination of those two variants.
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On Saturday, the country’s health minister said it could spread rapidly through the air, describing it as “very dangerous.”
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