If B.1.1.529 is given a Greek letter at Friday's meeting, there will be just 11 left to choose from. The WHO's technical chief for COVID-19, ...

According to the Greek alphabet, the World Health Organization was expected to name the latest Covid-19 variant “Nu” or “Xi.” But both names were seen as problematic.

The World Health Organization said on Monday that it has assigned new “labels” to key coronavirus variants so the public can refer to them by letters of the Greek alphabet instead of where the ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced new labels for notable variants of SARS-CoV-2 based on letters of the Greek alphabet. It’s hoped they’ll provide an easier to remember and ...

In doing so, the WHO decided to skip over two letters in the Greek alphabet: nu and xi. The reasons for doing this remained a bit of a mystery until the WHO itself clarified the issue on Saturday.

Pi is the next letter in the Greek alphabet. The WHO would not say whether it intends to use it. But they did add, there is no plan in place on what to do if they reach the end of the Greek alphabet.

The Greek alphabet contains 24 letters but there is no plan yet as to where to go next if they are exhausted. Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta and Iota have already been ascribed to variants of interest.

There are now seven “variants of interest” or “variants of concern” and they each have a Greek letter, according to a W.H.O. tracking page. Some other variants with Greek letters do not ...

The WHO said some scientists said the naming of strains had been complicated. Examples of the naming of the South African variant included alphanumeric strings such as B.1.351, 501Y.V2 and 20H ...