Kappa, Delta & Corona

United Nations: 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 as it named various variants of the coronavirus using Greek alphabets to simplify public discussions and also help remove stigma from the names.

The World Health Organisation's move came nearly three weeks after India objected to the B.1.617 mutant of the novel Coronavirus being termed an 'Indian Variant' in media reports with the Union Health Ministry pointing out that the UN's top health organ has not used the word 'Indian' for this strain in its document. The UN health agency named the B.1.617.1 variant of the Covid-19 as 'Kappa' while the B1.617.2 variant was dubbed 'Delta.' Both the variants were first found in India.

Taking to Twitter, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical Covid-19 lead, on Monday said: "Today, @WHO announces new, easy-to-say labels for #SARSCoV2 Variants of Concern (VOCs) and Interest (VOIs). They will not replace existing scientific names but are aimed to help in public discussion of VOI/VOC". The WHO, while announcing the new naming system "making them simple, easy to say and remember", said that it is "stigmatising and discriminatory" to call the variants by names of the nations they are first detected in. "The labels do not replace existing scientific names, which convey important scientific information and will continue to be used in research. The naming system aims to prevent calling Covid-19 variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatizing and discriminatory," the WHO said in a tweet.

The Geneva-based global health agency encouraged countries and others to adopt these names as they will ease public discussions about the global Covid-19 variants of Concern and Interest. The B.1.1.7 strain first detected in the UK will be known as 'Alpha', while the B.1.351 variant detected in South Africa is now 'Beta', P.1 variant first found in Brazil is 'Gamma' and the P.2 variant is 'Zeta'. The strains found in the US are 'Epsilon' and 'Iota'. "No country should be stigmatised for detecting and reporting variants. Globally, we need robust surveillance for variants, incl epi, molecular and sequencing to be carried out and shared. We need to continue to do all we can to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 (sic)," Infectious Disease Epidemiologist and Covid-19 Technical Lead at the WHO Kerkhove said in a tweet.