The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that naming COVID-19 variants after places where they're first detected and said the organization is working on a nomenclature – the devising or choosing of names for things – for virus variants.

"We continue to see people named the variants 'country X variant' or 'country Y variant,' and we have been working hard on developing a nomenclature, with a large group of scientists around the world,” Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on COVID-19 and expert infectious disease epidemiologist, told a daily press briefing. 

She said the nomenclature will be announced soon. "Because we need to make sure that any of the names that are used do not further stigmatize a person, or a last name, or a location inadvertently, and so we’re still working on that."