The table below shows a list of current variants of concern (VOC), variants of interest (VOI) and variants under monitoring (VUM).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies variants according to criteria which includes the variant make up and the spread of the variant virus.

Variants of interest (VOI)

To be considered at VOI, a SARS-CoV-2 variant must meet these two criteria:

• With genetic changes that are predicted or known to affect virus characteristics such as transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, diagnostic or therapeutic escape;
• 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.

Variants of concern (VOC)

To be considered a VOC, a VOI must meet one or more of the following criteria, at a level that has a significant effect on public health:

• 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 or therapeutics.

Pango is short for PANGOLIN classification. PANGOLIN stands for Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages. This is a tool that allows a user to classify a coronavirus based on its genetic relatedness to others. Genetic relatedness is rooted in its genetic lineage (the virus strain which came before it). Phylogenetics is the study of the genetic evolutionary lineage of an organism.

Visit VOC reports at cov-lineages.org and explore where the VOC B.1.1.7/Alpha, B.1.351/Beta, P.1/Gamma, B.1.617.2/Delta, B.1.1.529/Omicron have been reported. Has any of them been reported in your country? Share it with us in the comments.