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A COVID-19 variant nicknamed Cicada is rapidly spreading throughout the US, now present in 29 states, with experts warning vaccines may be less effective
02:38, Mon, Mar 30, 2026 Updated: 02:40, Mon, Mar 30, 2026
Scenes inside the Intensive Care Unit / Intensive Therapy Unit.Behind the scenes at University Hospital Southampton during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic at the largest NHS hospital on the South Coast of England.29 January 2021 (Image: Mirrorpix)
A variant of Covid-19 is spreading swiftly across the United States.
The BA.3.2 strain, dubbed Cicada, was first detected in Africa in November 2024. The initial US case emerged in June 2025 and it has since been identified in patients and wastewater monitoring systems across 29 states nationally.
Health experts have cautioned that the COVID-19 vaccine may offer reduced protection against this strain as it varies considerably from its predecessors, although there is no evidence suggesting this variant poses any greater danger than more recent strains.
Compared to the currently predominant strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, Cicada harbours 70 to 75 genetic modifications in the portion of the virus that allows it to penetrate cells. It is the same portion of the virus that vaccines rely upon to stimulate people's immune systems into identifying the virus, the Independent reports.
Viruses transform over time, and each instance the virus reproduces itself within a cell, its genetic material undergoes mutation. Most of these modifications disappear, but occasionally one grants the virus an edge over other variants, allowing that version to multiply.
These modifications make it more difficult for the immune system to recognise the virus. Due to people's immune systems being less adept at identifying Cicada, this strain may spread more widely amongst the population. Nevertheless, while Cicada transmits rapidly, there is no indication that it presents a heightened danger or causes more severe illness than the COVID-19 strains that have been more commonly circulating.
(FILES) A medical worker puts a swab in a tube after performing an antigen test for Covid-19 at a screening centre in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on November 4, 2020. Five years on, the shock of Covid-19 is still being felt in the French healthcare system, which has been profoundly shaken despite the resilience it has shown. In hospitals, while the pandemic filled intensive care wards, it also emptied other departments, with a 6.7% fall in hospital activity in 2020 in volume terms, which took a long time to recover. While private clinics have returned to pre-Covid levels of activity by 2022, the situation in public hospitals has not yet fully recovered. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images) (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Common symptoms, which resemble most Covid-19 cases but can often pass undetected, include cough, fever or chills, sore throat, congestion, shortness of breath, fatigue, headache, loss of smell or taste, and gastrointestinal issues.
Symptoms can vary and may ease with rest, fluids, and over-the-counter medications. The strain can also result in asymptomatic infections, which means certain people won't feel unwell but can still spread the virus.
The NHS lists the following as potential symptoms of Covid-19:
- a high temperature or shivering (chills) – meaning you feel hot to touch on your chest or back
- a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours
A man receives a dose of Comirnaty Omicron XBB 1.5 Pfizer vaccine (Image: Getty)
- a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
- shortness of breath
- feeling tired or exhausted
- an aching body
- a headache
- a sore throat
- a blocked or runny nose
- loss of appetite
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- diarrhoea
- feeling sick or being sick
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