According to the official names that have been assigned to the different variants of the coronavirus by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the variants found in Nepal are ‘Delta and Kappa’.
The WHO has named the COVID-19 variant found in the United Kingdom as ‘Alpha’ whereas the variant found in Brazil has been named ‘Gamma’. Similarly, the coronavirus variant detected in South Africa has been named ‘Beta’. Meanwhile, the UN health agency has named the B.1.617.1 variant of the COVID-19 as 'Kappa' while the B1.617.2 variant has been named 'Delta’. Both these variants were first found in India.
The variants found in Nepal are B.1.617.1 and B1.617.2, which have been renamed ‘Delta’ and ‘Kappa’ by the WHO now.
Previously, the new variants were given the name of the country they originated in like the ‘Indian variant’, ‘South African variant’ and ‘Brazil variant’. However, some countries started objecting to this system of nomenclature. In fact, the Indian government filed an official complaint with the WHO asking it to rename the variant. The Indian government has also asked various social media companies to remove the term ‘Indian variant’ from their platforms.
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