Moscow. 8 August. INTERFAX.RU – The World Health Organization (WHO) may introduce constellation names to denote new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The expert of the organization Maria Van Kerkhove told about this in an interview with the British edition of The Telegraph, published on Saturday, August 7.
Two dozen letters of the Greek alphabet may not be enough to designate variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the WHO expert admits. Therefore, the organization may introduce constellation names to denote new variants of the coronavirus.
“We probably won't have enough of the Greek alphabet, but we are already studying the next series of names,” she explained.
As an alternative, the names of ancient Greek gods and goddesses were previously proposed, but it was decided to refuse this option.
The WHO sees signs of discrimination in linking the names of variants of the virus to the sites in which they were first discovered. At the end of May, the organization began to name the mutations of the virus by one of the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet.
The SARS-CoV-2 RNA virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease, has been identified in more than 202 million people on the planet since the beginning of the pandemic, over 4 million patients with this infection have died, and about 182 million have recovered. Most of the confirmed infections (over 35 million) and deaths (over 615 thousand) are in the United States.
