The B1.617.2 variant of the corona virus found for the first time in India has been renamed. The World Health Organization has said that B.1.617.2 will be known as Delta, while another variant found here is B.1.617.1 named Kappa. These forms of Corona were first identified in India in October 2020.
WHO has also named variants found in other countries of the world based on Greek alphabets. This decision has come at a time when there was a dispute about associating different variants of Corona with the names of countries. The Government of India had expressed strong objection to B.1.617.2 being called the Indian variant.
The B.1.1.7 variant of the first coronavirus found in the UK in September 2020 has been named Alpha. Whereas, B.1.351 found in South Africa has got the name Beta. The P.1 variants first found in South Africa in November 2020 will now be known as Gamma.
Similarly, in March 2020, the variant B.1.427/B.1.429 found in the US was named “Epsilon” and “Iota”.
News Source: TribuneIndia
