COVID-19: Variants of Concern and Variants of Interest

Which variants come under which category?

What began as a pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, has assumed global proportions and claimed countless lives within a span of two years. At the outset, the virus spread through droplets of saliva, cough particles or nasal discharge from an infected person. Within the passage of a year, December 2020 saw the emergence of changing COVID-19 variants. These changes in variations allow the virus to be more contagious than before. The changes in the variants occur when there is a mutation of the genes of the virus. However, these mutations are only natural. M.D Robert Bollinger told the Johns Hopkins University’s Medical Organisation, that “All RNA viruses mutate over time. For example, flu viruses change often...”. MD Stuart Ray told the Hopkins Medical Organisation that “Geographic separation tends to result in genetically distant variants.” In light of such developments, the new mutations are bound to be several and distinct from one another. (New Variants of Coronavirus: What You Should Know | Johns Hopkins Medicine)