WHO Announces Naming System For Covid-19 Variants Based On Greek Letters, India's B.1.617.2 To Be Called Delta

LatestLY 2021-06-01

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a new naming system for variants of Covid-19. From now on the WHO will use Greek letters to refer to variants first detected in countries like the UK, South Africa & India. The Covid-19 variant first found in India will henceforth be referred to as the \"Delta variant\", the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on May 31. India had on May 12 objected to it, identified as B.1.617 till now, being labelled the \"Indian variant\". The world health body had earlier said that viruses or variants should not be identified by the names of countries they were found in. The established nomenclature systems for naming and tracking of SARS-CoV-2 genetic lineages will remain in use by scientists and in scientific research, the WHO has said. A group convened by WHO has recommended using letters of the Greek alphabet that is Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and so on. This \"will be easier and more practical to be discussed by non-scientific audiences,\" it said. The variant \"earlier found\" in India will be known as \"Kappa\", the WHO has said.

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