SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern as of 29 November 2024

Variant classification serves as an important communication tool for alerting EU/EEA countries about the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants with concerning properties likely to impact the epidemiological situation in the EU/EEA.

The ECDC Strategic Analysis of Variants in Europe (SAVE) Working Group is a multidisciplinary team comprising of ECDC Experts working in Respiratory Viruses, Microbiology, Bioinformatics, Mathematical Modelling, Epidemic Intelligence, Emergency Preparedness and Response and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases and Immunisation. Currently meetings are held once per month to assess the observed or predicted impact of currently circulating and newly emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants in the EU/EEA and globally.

ECDC utilises three categories of variant classification to communicate increasing levels of concern about a new or emerging SARS-CoV-2 variant: variant under monitoring (VUM), variant of interest (VOI) and variant of concern (VOC). Classification criteria and recommended Member state actions are available here:

ECDC variant classification criteria and recommended Member State actions

New evidence is regularly assessed on variants detected through epidemic intelligence, genomic horizon scanning, or other scientific sources. If a decision is made to add, remove, or change the category for any variant, the tables are updated to reflect this change. The tables are regularly sent for consultation to ECDC stakeholders, such as the European Commission and WHO Regional Office for Europe’s joint virus characterisation working group.

Variant surveillance data, including the distribution of VOC and VOI variant proportions in the EU/EEA and detailed country-specific COVID-19 epidemiological updates are available as part of the European Respiratory Virus Surveillance Summary (ERVISS).

Useful links

Description of the tables

The tables include:

Category: variant of concern (VOC), variant of interest (VOI), or variant under monitoring (VUM).

1. WHO label: As of 31st May 2021, WHO proposed labels for global SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants of interest to be used alongside the scientific nomenclature in communications about variants to the public. This list includes variants on WHO’s global list of VOC and VOI, and is updated as WHO’s list changes.
2. Lineage and additional mutations: the variant designation specified by one or more Pango lineages and any additional characteristic spike protein changes. An alternate description may be used if the variant is not easy to describe using this nomenclature. For updated information on Pango lineages and definition of lineages and for instructions on how to suggest new lineages, visit the Pango lineages website. Each lineage in then table is linked to the respective lineage page on the Pango lineages website.
3. Country first detected: only present if there is moderate confidence in the evidence relating to the first country of detection.
4. Spike mutations of interest: not all spike protein amino acid changes are included – this is not a full reference for assignment of the variants. It includes changes to spike protein residues 319-541 (receptor binding domain) and 613-705 (the S1 part of the S1/S2 junction and a small stretch on the S2 side), and any additional unusual changes specific to the variant.
5. Year and month first detected: as reported in the GISAID EpiCoV database. This can be adjusted backwards in time if new retrospective detections are made.
6. Evidence concerning properties in three different categories:
   • Transmissibility
   • Immunity
   • Infection severity
     Each category is annotated as increased, reduced, similar, unclear, or no evidence depending on the currently available evidence. Increased or reduced means that there is evidence demonstrating that the property is different enough for the variant compared to previously circulating variants that it is likely to have an impact on the epidemiological situation in the EU/EEA. Similar means that there is evidence that demonstrates that the property is not different enough for this variant compared to previously circulating variants that it is unlikely to have an impact. Unclear means that the current evidence is preliminary or contradictory enough to make the assessment uncertain. No evidence means that no evidence has yet been evaluated for this category. The evidence is further annotated with v or m to indicate whether the evidence is available for the variant itself (v) or for mutations associated with the variant (m).
7. Transmission in the EU/EEA: categorised as dominant, community, outbreak(s), and sporadic/travel. The categories are qualitative, and the assessment is based on surveillance data collected in TESSy, GISAID EpiCoV data, epidemic intelligence data, and direct communications with the affected countries.

Variants of Concern (VOC)

As of 3 March 2023, ECDC has de-escalated BA.2, BA.4 and BA.5 from its list of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC), as these parental lineages are no longer circulating. ECDC will continue to categorise and report on specific SARS-CoV-2 sub-lineages in circulation that are relevant to the epidemiological situation.

There are currently no SARS-CoV-2 variants meeting the VOC criteria.

Variants of Interest (VOI)

All sub-lineages of the listed lineages are also included in the variant. For the full list of lineages, please look at the table here.

Variants under monitoring

De-escalated variants

These additional variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been de-escalated based on at least one the following criteria: (1) the variant is no longer circulating, (2) the variant has been circulating for a long time without any impact on the overall epidemiological situation, (3) scientific evidence demonstrates that the variant is not associated with any concerning properties.

x: A67V, Δ69-70, T95I, G142D, Δ143-145, N211I, Δ212, ins215EPE, G339D, S371L, S373P, S375F, K417N, N440K, G446S, S477N, T478K, E484A, Q493R, G496S, Q498R, N501Y, Y505H, T547K, D614G, H655Y, N679K, P681H, N764K, D796Y, N856K, Q954H, N969K, L981F

y: G142D, N211I, Δ212, V213G, G339D, S371F, S373P, S375F, T376A, D405N, R408S, K417N, N440K, S477N, T478K, E484A, Q493R, Q498R, N501Y, Y505H, D614G, H655Y, N679K, P681H, N764K, D796Y, Q954H, N969K

z: A67V, Δ69-70, Δ143-145, N211I, Δ212, G339D, S371F, S373P, S375F, D405N, K417N, N440K, G446S, S477N, T478K, E484A, Q493R, Q498R, N501Y, Y505H, D614G, H655Y, N679K, P681H, D796Y, Q954H, N969K

q: G75D,S98F,V126A,W152L,R190S,K417T,K444N,V445G,L452M,N481K,V642G,K679R,S691P,T791I,Y796H,D936G

n/a: not applicable, no WHO label has been assigned to this variant at this time

All sub-lineages of the listed lineages are also included in the variant, e.g., B.1.429.1 is included in B.1.427/B.1.429 as it is a sub-lineage of B.1.429.

(a) No assessment of transmission is given for variants in the monitoring category, only detected/not detected.

(b) The earliest detections from several different countries are close in time and there is no clearly demonstrated travel link to a specific country that explains the detections.

(c) The property of concern for this variant was the fact that there are reports of difficulties associated with detecting it in upper respiratory tract samples. These difficulties were not caused by primer-template mismatch but rather by the virus not being present in sufficient quantities in the upper respiratory tract.

(d) Any amino acid substitution

(e) Preliminary mutations based on a limited number of genomes

Geographic scope of the tables

The tables are based on genomic, phenotypic, and epidemiological evidence available on a global scale, but focus on the potential impact for the European region. For this reason, the list may deviate slightly from the global variants of concern and interest list and labels produced by WHO and published in the WHO weekly epidemiological update.

More on this topic

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