WHO assigns labels to Covid variants, strain first detected in India to be called 'Delta'

In a bid to address widespread confusion regarding names of Covid variants, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has assigned simple labels to key variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The WHO settled on letters of the Greek alphabet to refer to the variants discovered in different parts of the world since the beginning of the pandemic. For B.1.617.2, the Covid-19 variant first discovered in India in October 2020, the WHO has assigned the name 'Delta'. This means that the variant will now be referred to as the 'Delta' strain of coronavirus.