Covid variant BA.3.2 explained as CDC confirms detection in 23 countries
Topics: US News, Health, World News, Coronavirus
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: Getty stock image
Topics: US News, Health, World News, Coronavirus
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed that a new Covid variant has been detected in 23 different countries across the globe. Here's what you need to know about the virus.
The CDC shared its update on SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.3.2 in a release on March 19, though the variant has already been floating around for months.
In fact, there are thousands of SARS-CoV-2 variants due to the virus' habit of evolving through mutations. It's SARS-CoV-2 that caused Covid-19, and the global shutdown which I'm sure we all remember all too well.
But this time, we're talking about the 'highly divergent' SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.3.2, which the CDC says was first detected in a respiratory sample taken way back on November 22, 2024.
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In its statement, the CDC said the first instance of the variant appeared in South Africa, when investigators isolated the virus from a swab from a five-year-old boy, and it's since been tracking the variant using a multimodal SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance approach.
It was only a few months later that the variant appeared in the US, when the CDC reported a detection at the San Francisco International Airport in California, in someone traveling to the United States from the Netherlands.
This detection took place on June 27, 2025.
After first being detected in South Africa, BA.3.2 was detected in Mozambique on March 17, 2025, followed by detections in the Netherlands on April 12, and Germany on April 29.
Detections then began to increase in September 2025, with the highest number of detections reported throughout the week beginning December 7, 2025.
The CDC's latest reporting brings us to February 11, 2026, by which time BA.3.2 had been detected in a variety of locations in the US.
These include self-collected, voluntary nasal swabs from four US travelers, clinical samples from five patients, three samples from airplane wastewater, and 132 wastewater surveillance samples from 25 states.
Globally, the latest data states that BA.3.2 has been reported by at least 23 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania, though the CDC noted that limited genomic detection and surveillance capacities in some countries means this number likely underrepresents the actual extent of spread.
While SARS-CoV-2 generally causes 'substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide', according to the CDC, variant BA 3.2 more specifically has the potential to reduce protection from a previous infection or vaccination.
While the existing 2025–2026 Covid-19 vaccines are capable of protecting the community against the most predominant variants of the virus in the US, lab studies indicate that the BA.3.2 strain efficiently evades antibodies.
The CDC has noted that ongoing surveillance and evaluations of vaccine and antiviral effectiveness are needed, as well as continued surveillance to track the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and determine its potential effect on public health.