COVID-19 or Covid-19

Our preference is to use 'COVID-19' when writing about the coronavirus, rather than 'Covid-19' or 'covid-19'. This is consistent with the World Health Organization's (WHO) use of the abbreviation and its use in scientific papers, for example:

• 'As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, much of Imperial's teaching moved online.'

Talking about variants

We follow WHO guidance when naming variants of COVID-19. The WHO has assigned simple, easy to say and remember labels for key variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, using letters of the Greek alphabet, such as: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. For example:

• 'The Delta variant was detected in England in early April.'

Note that variant names should use an initial capital.

You can read more about the labels assigned for variants of COVID-19 on the WHO website.