Everyone now knows it, and it is globally dominant: according to the World Health Organization, the “variant of concern” Delta is still spreading in at least 185 countries and is now widely dominant in comparison with the three other variants “of concern”, namely the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma variants.
For the record, the WHO has decided to name variants with letters from the Greek alphabet to try and prevent from stigmatizing countries where the variants have emerged. In details, the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma variants are now found in less than 1% of the sequenced cases in the world, according to statements made on Tuesday September 21, 2021 by WHO.
“Less than one per cent each of Alpha, Beta and Gamma are currently circulating. It's really predominantly Delta around the world. This virus has become more fit, it is more transmissible and it is out-competing, it is replacing the other viruses that are circulating”, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead on Covid-19 said on social networks.
Furthermore, please note that until recently the World Health Organization considered the following five variants as “Variants of Interest”: Eta, Iota, Kappa, Lambda and Mu. But the Eta, Iota and Kappa variants have been reclassified by the WHO as “Variants Under Monitoring”.
