Region:
World
Category:
Society

WHO assigns labels to Covid variants, strain first found in India to be called ‘Delta’

  • WHO assigns labels to Covid variants, The UK variant for instance is labelled as Alpha, the South African Beta, and the Indian as Delta.
    WHO assigns labels to Covid variants, The UK variant for instance is labelled as Alpha, the South African Beta, and the Indian as Delta.
Region:
World
Category:
Society
Publication date:
Print article

The WHO said on Monday that the B.1.617.2 strain of SARS-CoV-2, which was first discovered in India, will now be referred to as the 'Delta variant' 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 and India.

The UK variant for instance is labelled as Alpha, the South African Beta, and the Indian as Delta.

The WHO said 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.

For B.1.617.2, the Covid-19 variant first discovered in India in October 2020, the WHO has assigned the name 'Delta'. This means that the variant will now be referred to as the 'Delta' strain of coronavirus.

"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.