The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a new naming system for variants of Covid-19.From now WHO will use Greek letters to refer to variants first detected in countries like the UK, South Africa and India.The UK variant for instance is labelled as Alpha, the South African Beta, and the Indian as Delta.
The WHO said that this was to simplify discussions but also to help remove some stigma from the names. 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.
Letters will refer to both variants of concern, and variants of interest. A full list of names has been published on the WHO website.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.
The country was in the early stages of a third wave of coronavirus infections, in part driven by the Delta, or Indian variant. 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.
Vietnam, meanwhile, has detected what appears to be a combination of those two variants to which the health minister describes that could spread quickly through the air and described it as “very dangerous”.
There have been almost 8,000 cases of the B.1.617.2 variant in England, just over 1,000 in Scotland, 82 in Wales and 19 in Northern Ireland. In some areas of England including Bolton, Blackburn, and Sefton in North-West England and Bedford, Chelmsford and Canterbury in the South-East are causing the majority of infections.
In London makes up the lion’s share of cases in Croydon, Hounslow and Hillingdon. A surge in Glasgow may also be driven by the variant.
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