Until now, variants of Covid-19 were identified in two ways. One, via the place of discovery of the strain: Brazilian variant, Indian variant, British variant… The other, with numbers and letters: B.1.351, B.1.617… The World Health Organization has decided to change in a desire to simplify and avoid stigmatization, she said in a statement..
What is the Gamma variant?
These are Greek letters that came to replace the names of countries. The Brazilian variant, also called P.1 is therefore renamed Gamma. The South African variant is now called Beta. The Brit is Alpha. In India, two types have been distinguished under the names Delta and Kappa.
The idea is to use them in everyday life, they will be so-called popular or media names. Scientists will, however, be able to continue to use the old designations.
The problem with the place name previously used was that it matched the country where it was first identified. But that does not mean that the viral strain appeared there…
It is therefore for fight against this imprecision and the risk of stigmatization of the countries concernedthat the WHO made the decision to rename the variants.
Source: WHO
Read also:
- Coronavirus: stop anti-Asian racism
- Covid-19 symptoms: variants, how long? what to do ?
- Covid vaccine: everyone over 18 can make an appointment for a vaccination from May 31
