China News Service, August 9th. According to foreign media reports on the 8th, officials of the World Health Organization said that once the Greek letters are used up, they will consider using the constellation to name the new COVID-19 mutant strain.
According to reports, Fan Khov, head of the WHO's new crown epidemic technical department, said that WHO is looking for new naming methods for the new crown variant strains in case the 24 Greek letters are not enough.
Van Khov said that at present, the organization is considering naming constellations.
The World Health Organization announced on May 31 that, starting from that day, the names of the new coronaviruses first discovered in the United Kingdom, India and other countries will be named in Greek letters, mainly to avoid stigmatization of relevant countries.
According to the new naming method, the B.1.1.7 mutant virus that was first discovered in the United Kingdom was renamed the Alpha mutant virus; the B.1.351 that was first discovered in South Africa was renamed the Beta mutant virus, and so on.
Up to now, WHO has named 11 COVID-19 mutant strains using Greek letters.
Van Kerhof said, "We may run out of Greek letters, but we are already studying the naming of the next series." "We are actually considering constellations." Van Kellhof said that the WHO is studying proposals. Make sure that no one is unhappy with the new naming.