The 15th letter of the Greek alphabet had been a fairly innocuous entity for 2,500 years. But in just two weeks, it became notorious. Omicron moved beyond classical philosophy texts, beyond the ...

If B.1.1.529 is given a Greek letter at Friday's meeting, there will be just 11 left to choose from. The WHO's technical chief for COVID-19, ...

According to the Greek alphabet, the World Health Organization was expected to name the latest Covid-19 variant “Nu” or “Xi.” But both names were seen as problematic.

After a new variant with the unwieldy scientific name of B.1.1.529 was discovered last week in South Africa, observers might have expected WHO to name it after the next Greek letter on the list: Nu.

B.1.351, the South Africa variant will be Beta, and the B.1.617.2 variant discovered in India will now be known as Delta. When the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet are used up, WHO will announce ...

Some other variants with Greek letters do not reach those classification levels, and the W.H.O. also skipped two letters just before Omicron — “Nu” and “Xi” — leading to speculation ...

There are some concerns that WHO’s new Greek alphabet naming system has come a little too late – and now the system might make describing the variants even more complicated as there will be ...