The new coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa has been assigned the name 'Omicron', another letter in the Greek alphabet.
Earlier this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) started assigning variants with the letters of the Greek alphabet to simplify discussion while avoiding stigma. First came Alpha, first identified in the UK, then Delta - the strain currently circulating in New Zealand, then Lambda, Mu, and now Omicron.
But there are two letters (Nu and Xi) in between Mu and Omicron, so why were they skipped?
In a statement to AP, the WHO confirmed it missed the letters Nu and Xi to avoid confusion and offending people.
"'Nu' is too easily confounded with 'new' and 'Xi' was not used because it is a common last name."
The WHO added its "best practices for naming disease suggest avoiding causing offence to any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic groups".
WHO officials named the B.1.1.529 variant 'Omicron' late last week, labelling it a "variant of concern".
Omicron has a spike protein that is dramatically different from the one in the original SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that COVID-19 vaccines are based on. It was detected in Australia's New South Wales on Sunday, as well as the UK and multiple European countries at the weekend.
Canada said it's also detected two cases.
The variant prompted countries around the world to slap travel restrictions on southern African nations.
Earlier this year, the WHO indicated it could start naming new coronavirus strains after constellations once the Greek alphabet is used up.
