New ‘Cicada’ COVID variant emerges, but doctors say don’t bug out
The name of the latest COVID variant should say it all — Cicada. The mutated variant is spreading through at least 25 states right now.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, variant BA.3.2 was first discovered in 2024 in South Africa. It has since been found in wastewater around the country. The first case was found in San Francisco in June 2025. A second case was found in November in Rhode Island. Since then, the list has grown.
While the number of US cases is small, the variant has been detected in 23 countries and represents a large portion of COVID in Europe.
USA Today reported it’s named “Cicada” because like the insects, it has remained undetected or underground since discovery. This particular variant is also reportedly highly mutated.
“(The variant) basically caught people’s eye, particularly in the infectious disease community, because it’s got a number of mutations that basically would render it potentially more transmissible and maybe allow it to escape immunity from prior variants,” Dr. Abraar Karan, an instructor in the division of infectious diseases and geographic medicine at Stanford University said.
The doctor told a California news outlet, The Desert Sun, he has seen more patients test negative for flu and RSV. Yet, they have upper respiratory symptoms. What looks like an upper respiratory infection, he suspects may be the new COVID variant.
While “cicada” appears to be spreading its wings, doctors say there’s no reason for alarm.
“We have not yet seen any signs this is causing severe disease requiring hospitalization,” Karan said. “People’s immune systems will still have some protection against even variants like this, which have tons of mutations. … I don’t think there’s going to be anything reminiscent of early COVID days.”
Last summer it was “Nimbus” and “Stratus” variants that made a pass through the US. Symptoms remain consistent with earlier forms of the virus — such as cough, sore throat, fever and fatigue.
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
