After a new variant with the unwieldy scientific name of B.1.1.529 was discovered last week in South Africa, observers might have expected WHO to name it after the next Greek letter on the list: Nu.

According to the Greek alphabet, the World Health Organization was expected to name the latest Covid-19 variant “Nu” or “Xi.” But both names were seen as problematic.

(The last letter of the Greek alphabet is Omega, by the way.) Maria Van Kerkhove, coronavirus lead at the WHO, told STAT News that once they’ve run out of Greek letters, the WHO will announce a ...

Omicron is the 15th letter of the 24-letter Greek alphabet. When the WHO runs out of Greek letters to use, it will announce a new naming system for variants. This time around, the WHO did skip two ...

For example, Graham says, with Hurricane Zeta — the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet — "there were so many phone calls and inquiries" because people incorrectly thought it was the last letter.

The 15th letter of the Greek alphabet had been a fairly innocuous entity for 2,500 years. But in just two weeks, it became notorious. ... Last Thursday, at a conference table, ...

So after a new variant with the unwieldy scientific name of B.1.1.529 was discovered last week in South ... Xi — and instead went straight to Omicron — the 15th letter in the Greek alphabet.