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A highly mutated COVID-19 variant detected in 29 states, including Texas, is raising concerns among scientists because it may evade existing immunity.
Scientists have informally referred to the strain as “Cicada.” It was identified in South Africa in 2024, then, like its namesake insect, it went underground before resurfacing in Europe in mid-2025.
Cicada, officially known as BA.3.2, descends from a different COVID lineage than most of the current circulating subvariants. They come from JN.1, the strain that has been dominant in the United States for more than two years. While both JN.1 and Cicada are descendants of the Omicron variant, Cicada’s spike protein has more than 70 mutations. That means human immune systems likely won’t recognize Cicada as well as they do JN.1, so they may not be able to fight it as well.
Vaccines may also be less effective. Current vaccines were created to target the spike proteins of JN.1 and its descendant LP.8.1. According to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) published on March 19, the Cicada strain was able to evade antibodies in laboratory studies, “highlighting the need for ongoing genomic surveillance and observational evaluations of vaccine and antiviral effectiveness.”
Though Cicada has been detected in wastewater in more than half of the country, it is still relatively rare in the United States. As of March 12, it has been detected in nasal swabs of six U.S. travelers, three airplane wastewater samples, 29 patients, and 260 wastewater samples in 29 states and Puerto Rico. It doesn’t yet show up individually in the CDC Nowcast Estimates of circulating variants.
Cicada is currently being tracked in 23 countries and has accounted for about 30% of COVID cases in Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands this past winter.
