On Monday, the World Health Organization announced that it had developed a new and simpler system for identifying mutated strains of COVID-19.
It is planned that the letters of the Greek alphabet will be used, instead of the place where the Corona strain was first discovered.
This came amid concerns expressed by the Indian government, that categorizing variants according to where they were first discovered leads to an increase in “stigma”.
Officials at the Geneva-based United Nations said the move would help simplify public discussions about the variables.
For example, the name “Alpha” will be given to the British mutant, while the South African strain will be called “Beta”, the Brazilian strain will be called “Gamma”, and the Indian strain has been given the name “Delta”, according to the Deutsche Welle website.
The organization indicated that if the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet run out, other similar sequences will be used.
She added that the new names will not replace the scientific names of the strains, as the British strain, or “alpha”, will remain scientifically called B.1.1.7.
Today, @WHO announces new, easy-to-say labels for #SARSCoV2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) & Interest (VOIs)
They will not replace existing scientific names, but are aimed to help in public discussion of VOI/VOC
Read more here (will be live soon):
https://t.co/VNvjJn8Xcv#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/L9YOfxmKW7— Maria Van Kerkhove (@mvankerkhove) May 31, 2021
Bacteriologist Mark Palin, who was involved in the talks, said the choice of the Greek alphabet came after months of deliberation in which experts considered other possibilities such as the names of Greek gods and innovative and pseudo-classical names.
The World Health Organization has been working for months with many experts on simpler names for coronavirus strains, and the organization will publish the strains with their new names on its website.