WHO assigns labels to Covid-19 variants

The World Health Organization (WHO) is announcing a new nomenclature for the Covid-19 variants that were previously — and somewhat uncomfortably — known either by their technical letter-number codes or by the countries in which they first appeared. Hoping to strike a fair and more comprehensible balance, WHO said it will now refer to the most worrisome variants — known as “variants of concern” — by letters in the Greek alphabet.

So the first such variant of concern, which first appeared in Britain and can be also known as B.1.1.7, will be known as the “alpha” variant. The second, which turned up in South Africa and has been referred to as B.1.351, will be known as the “beta” variant. The B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 variants of the Covid-19, first identified in India, have been named as 'Kappa' and 'Delta' respectively by the WHO.

Watch this report to know more.