The World Health Organization (WHO) is updating the naming system for variants of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — to better reflect Omicron’s global dominance and track its ongoing evolution.
Going forward, the organization’s tracking system — a Greek alphabet-based approach to naming major variants of concern — will consider the classification of Omicron sublineages as either variants under monitoring, variants of interest or, in the case of the biggest potential threats, as variants of concern.
Since February 2022, “Omicron and its many sublineages have almost completely replaced other variants,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist who serves as
