COVID-19 VARIANTS

Variants of concern (VOC)

 Increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology; OR
 Increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation; OR
 Decrease in effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines,
therapeutics.

ALPHA

-also known as lineage B.1.1.7. Outside the UK it is sometimes referred to as the UK variant or British
variant or English variant

BETA

-Beta, also known as 501.V2 or B.1.351, has some significant genetic changes that experts are studying.
It was first identified in South Africa.

GAMMA

-The Gamma variant comprises the two distinct subvariants 28-AM-1 and 28-AM-2, which both carry the
K417T, E484K, N501Y mutations, and which both developed independently of each other within the
same Brazilian Amazonas region.

DELTA

-The Delta variant causes more infections and spreads faster than early forms of SARS-CoV-2, the virus
that causes COVID-19. The Delta variant is highly contagious, more than 2x as contagious as previous
variants.

OMICRON

-The Omicron variant likely will spread more easily than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and how easily
Omicron spreads compared to Delta remains unknown.

Variants of interest (VOI)

  with genetic changes that are predicted or known to affect virus characteristics such as
transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, diagnostic or therapeutic escape; AND
 Identified to cause significant community transmission or multiple COVID-19 clusters, in multiple
countries with increasing relative prevalence alongside increasing number of cases over time, or
other apparent epidemiological impacts to suggest an emerging risk to global public health.

LAMBDA

-also known as lineage C.37, is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It was first
detected in Peru in August 2020

MU

-also known as lineage B.1.621 or VUI-21JUL-1. It was first detected in Colombia in January 2021 and was
designated by the WHO as a variant of interest on August 30, 2021.

Variants under monitoring (VUM)

 A SARS-CoV-2 variant with genetic changes that are suspected to affect virus characteristics with
some indication that it may pose a future risk, but evidence of phenotypic or epidemiological
impact is currently unclear, requiring enhanced monitoring and repeat assessment pending new
evidence.

AZ.5#

C.1.2

B.1.617.1§

B.1.526§

B.1.525§

B.1.630

B.1.640

Formerly monitored variants

AV.1
AT.1

P.2§

P.3§

R.1

B.1.466.2

B.1.1.519

C.36.3

B.1.214.2

B.1.427

B.1.429§

B.1.1.523

B.1.619

B.1.620