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 agency published an update on the SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.3.2 on March 19, although the strain itself has been circulating for some time.
That delay isn’t unusual. SARS-CoV-2 continually changes as it picks up mutations, which is why thousands of variants have been identified since the virus first drove the Covid-19 pandemic and the worldwide disruption that followed.
The focus now is BA.3.2, described by the CDC as ‘highly divergent’. The agency says it was first identified in a respiratory specimen collected on November 22, 2024.
According to the CDC, the earliest known case was in South Africa, where researchers isolated the virus from a swab taken from a five-year-old boy. Since then, the organization has monitored BA.3.2 using a multimodal SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance approach.
Not long after, BA.3.2 was detected in the United States as well. The CDC reported identifying it at San Francisco International Airport in California in a traveler arriving from the Netherlands.
That airport detection occurred on June 27, 2025.
After the initial finding in South Africa, the CDC timeline notes additional detections in Mozambique on March 17, 2025, then in the Netherlands on April 12, followed by Germany on April 29.
Reports grew more frequent beginning in September 2025, with detections peaking during the week starting December 7, 2025.
The CDC’s most recent update extends through February 11, 2026. By then, BA.3.2 had shown up in multiple parts of the US.
The documented US sources included self-collected, voluntary nasal swabs from four travelers, clinical specimens from five patients, three airplane wastewater samples, and 132 wastewater surveillance samples spanning 25 states.
Internationally, the CDC says BA.3.2 has been reported by at least 23 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania. However, it cautioned that uneven capacity for genomic detection and surveillance means the current count may underestimate how widely the variant has actually spread.
While SARS-CoV-2 continues to cause ‘substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide’, the CDC warns that BA.3.2 in particular may weaken protection gained from prior infection or vaccination.
Even though the 2025–2026 Covid-19 vaccines are designed to protect against the most common variants circulating in the US, laboratory findings suggest BA.3.2 can evade antibodies effectively.
The CDC added that continued monitoring is essential, including evaluating how well vaccines and antiviral treatments perform and maintaining surveillance to follow SARS-CoV-2 evolution and assess any potential public health impact.