The World Health Organization (WHO) has assigned new labels for key variants of the Covid-19 virus.

These labels will not replace existing scientific names, as these will continue to be used in research.

However, the WHO acknowledged that these names can be difficult to recall and are prone to misreporting.

“As a result, people often resort to calling variants by the places where they are detected, which is stigmatising and discriminatory. To avoid this and to simplify public communications, the WHO encourages national authorities, media outlets and others to adopt these new labels,” it stated.

The new names use letters of the Greek alphabet and were chosen after wide consultation and a review of a number of potential naming systems.

As a result, the UK variant of concern (B.1.1.7) has been renamed Alpha, the Brazilian variant of concern (P.1) has been renamed Gamma and the Indian variant of concern (B.1.617.2) has been renamed Delta.

There are also a number of variants of interest, which have also been renamed, including another Brazilian variant (P.2), which is now referred to as Zeta.

The full list of new names can be viewed here.