Since last May, the World Health Organization has been offering a new nomenclature to the media and public health actors: using the Greek alphabet instead of the original names of the variant.
Alpha designates the English variant, Beta the South African variant or Delta the second Indian variant.
Read alsoA simplified nomenclature for Covid variants
Saturday, November 27, a spokesperson for the WHO, Tarik Jasarevic, justified the adoption of Omicron with the New York Times: "
Naked is too easily confused with new (in English Editor's note) and XI did not been used because it is a common surname
”. It is notably the last name of the current Chinese president, Xi Jinping. Tarik Jasarevic added that using the Greek alphabet helps to avoid “
offending any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic group
”.
Eight possible cases of the Omicron variant have been spotted in France, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health published on Sunday evening.
This new variant represents a “
high to very high
”
risk
for Europe, according to the European Union's health agency.