Russian eye clinic wants omicron name ban

The founder of a chain of Russian eye clinics called Omicron said it was a "shock" to learn that the newly discovered variant of coronavirus had been given the same name.

Aleksandr Padar filed a lawsuit with the Moscow Arbitration Court against the Russian representative office of the World Health Organization on November 30. Padar said he had "devoted six years to building the association of 'Omicron' with eye health, and now this word has a completely different, negative connotation."

He said it may negatively affect his business "in new regions where we open new clinics". Omicron eye clinics were established in 2015 across eleven Russian cities. Their website lists five more cities the company plans to open new clinics in.