On May 31st, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a new, “easy-to-pronounce and non-stigmatizing”, labeling convention for Variants of Concern and Variants of Interest using the Greek alphabet as an easier way to discuss variants by non-scientific audiences. Starting Wednesday, OHA’s COVID-19 Daily Data Update dashboard and Variants dashboard will include WHO labels added alongside with the current labels. OHA uses the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) guidelines for reporting and there are some differences between how the WHO and CDC groups variants of both classifications. The WHO groups the B.1.427 and B.1.429 variants together and has given them a label of “Epsilon”. OHA will continue to follow how the CDC reports these variants separately and they will both have the “Epsilon” label added to each. The CDC has also identified some Variants of Interest for the U.S. that the WHO has not. As a result, these will not have a Greek alphabet label assigned to it. Explanations about these WHO label additions will be included in the notes at the bottom of each of the dashboards. Additional information about Variants of Concern and Variants of Interest can be found on the OHA website.
