A pediatric infectious disease expert shares information on the Cicada variant, the latest COVID strain spreading in the U.S., and whether children are more at risk of infection.
A newly identified COVID-19 variant known as BA 3.2, or “Cicada,” is spreading in the United States and has been found in wastewater samples from 25 states, according to a recent CDC report. BA 3.2 is a mutated form of the Omicron BA 1 variant and was nicknamed “Cicada” because, like the insect, it appears to vanish and then resurface months later.
The BA 3.2 variant has over 70 mutations when compared with the original COVID-19 strain. A high number of mutations can raise concern because it may make a variant more contagious or reduce vaccine effectiveness. However, current data on hospitalizations and severe infections do not show that this is happening with BA 3.2. Despite its many mutations, BA 3.2 makes up only around 0.19% of COVID-causing variants in the U.S., according to the CDC report. Worldwide, the WHO reports that BA 3.2 accounts for about 8% of variants.
