NEW DELHI: A ‘highly mutated’ COVID-19 variant, which is spreading fast in the US and parts of Europe, has triggered worldwide concern. However, experts said there is no immediate risk in India.
Nicknamed ‘Cicada’, the BA.3.2 is on the list of COVID-19 variants being tracked by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Though cases due to ‘Cicada’, nicknamed for the insect’s ability to disappear and then reemerge after years underground, are rising, experts say it is not driving large waves of infection or more severe disease.
It was first detected in 2024. But Cicada has accounted for a high number of infections, especially in the US and some Eastern European countries, over the past month.
In the US, the variant was detected in wastewater samples in at least 29 states, according to the CDC. There, it is primarily affecting children but is not causing severe infection.
Speaking to , Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, Co-Chairman of the National IMA COVID Task Force, said that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is constantly evolving.
“This means the virus is continually making changes to its genetic structure (called mutations) so that it can escape being detected by existing human immune responses that were based on earlier versions of the virus,” he said.
The BA.3.2 has evolved from a variant that apparently disappeared from the global surveillance radar in 2022. It has now reappeared with 75 new mutations in its spike protein compared to the earlier dominant strains like JN.1.
“This extraordinary change is believed to be the result of the earlier virus having lived in a person of reduced immunity for several years, gradually accumulating one mutation at a time,” said Dr Jayadevan, who is also Convener, Research Cell, Kerala State, IMA.
He, however, said there is no COVID surge ongoing in India.
“In countries reporting it, there is no evidence that it is causing more severe disease,” he said, adding that, thus, it is not a cause for immediate concern in India.
He further explained that this is also because of “widespread population immunity to prior versions of this virus”.
Although it is found at significantly higher levels in Germany and the Netherlands, BA.3.2 in the US accounts for less than 1% of circulating SARS-CoV-2 viruses. “This is despite being discovered in the US as early as June 2025 in a traveller from the Netherlands. With worldwide travel, it may have arrived in India,” he said.
The last major variants detected in India were XFG and LF.7, which were the primary drivers of localised cases through 2025.
On the new variant not causing severe disease, he said, it is because of widespread immune memory in the population to the virus’s basic template—from vaccination and from surviving bouts of natural infection.
“In other words, although it is still capable of infecting people, the immune response in healthy individuals can get rid of the virus before the body develops severe disease,” he added.