From now on the WHO will use Greek letters to refer to variants first detected in countries like the UK, South Africa and India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK variant for instance is labelled as Alpha, the South African Beta, and the Indian as Delta. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WHO said this was to simplify discussions but also to help remove some stigma from the names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month the Indian government criticised the naming of variant B.1.617.2 – first detected in the country last October – as the “Indian variant”, though the WHO had never officially labelled it as such. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “No country should be stigmatised for detecting and reporting variants,” the WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead, Maria Van Kerkhove, tweeted. She also called for “robust surveillance” of variants, and for the sharing of scientific data to help stop the spread. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Letters will refer to both variants of concern, and variants of interest. A full list of names has been published on the WHO website<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These Greek letters will not replace existing scientific names. If more than 24 variants are officially identified, the system runs out of Greek letters, and a new naming programme will be announced, Ms Van Kerkhove told STAT News in an interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We’re not saying replace B.1.1.7, but really just to try to help some of the dialogue with the average person,” she told the US-based website. “So that in public discourse, we could discuss some of these variants in more easy-to-use language.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, a scientist advising the UK government said the country was in the early stages of a third wave<\/a> of coronavirus infections, in part driven by the Delta, or Indian variant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is thought to spread more quickly than the Alpha (UK; Kent) variant, which was responsible for the surge in cases in the UK over the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vietnam, meanwhile, has detected what appears to be a combination of those two variants<\/a>. On Saturday, the country’s health minister said it could spread quickly through the air and described it as “very dangerous”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Graphic](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/9656\/production\/_118768483_coronavirus_variant_names-2x-nc.png.webp\")
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