Alpha, beta, gamma and delta: new names for SARS-CoV-2 variants

2021/06/02 Agirre Ruiz de Arkaute, Aitziber - Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Mikrobiologia
• Berdintasuna
• COVID-19

The World Health Organization will name the genetic varieties of SARS-CoV-2 from the Greek letters alpha, beta, gamma and delta. So far, the first cases of each variant have been named after the detected countries (India, British, South Africa...), but the WHO has constituted an expert committee that considers it important to prevent stigmatizations: COVID-19 has decided on the new designation among expert communication researchers and viral and microbiological nomenclature.

From now on they propose to take the letter according to the order described: the British variant will be alpha; that of South Africa, beta; the Brazilian, gamma; and that of India, delta.