New virus strain - already in 23 countries: will "Cicada" return the world to restrictions and masks?

After a new wave of media reports about the COVID-19 variant BA.3.2, which received the unofficial name “Cicada“, the question has resurfaced: is the world on the brink of another major lockdown. At the moment there is no basis for such conclusions. CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) reports that as of 11 February 2026 this variant had been detected in at least 23 countries, and WHO does not classify it as a “variant of concern”.

According to WHO, available data indicate that BA.3.2 does not show confirmed increased severity of illness, nor is it associated with increases in hospitalizations or deaths compared to other circulating subvariants. The organization explicitly states that this variant currently poses a “low additional risk to public health”. In WHO’s global briefing for the period up to 8 March 2026 it is indicated that BA.3.2 accounted for about 8% of all submitted sequences and was not considered a variant with additional risks compared to other active SARS-CoV-2 lineages.

Therefore the claim that “the COVID vaccine is not effective against the new strain” is at least an exaggeration. Both WHO and specialist scientific reviews emphasize something else: due to a large number of mutations BA.3.2 may partially evade immune protection after prior infection or vaccination, but current vaccines are still expected to protect against severe disease, hospitalization and death. In other words, this is not “zero effectiveness” but a possible reduction in protection against infection or symptomatic disease.

Regarding symptoms, to date WHO does not identify any fundamentally new clinical picture for BA.3.2. COVID-19 symptoms generally remain similar to those already known: fever, cough, sore throat, fatigue, body aches, headache, runny nose, nausea or diarrhea. This means that the symptom set by itself does not allow one to “at a glance” distinguish “Cicada” from other variants or even from seasonal respiratory infections.

Some media outlets also claim that children are allegedly infected by this variant more often than adults. But available assessments by the CDC and WHO currently do not contain a confirmed conclusion that BA.3.2 is specifically more dangerous for children or fundamentally infects them more often.

At the same time, local data from the Mykolaiv region have already shown that during seasonal waves of ARIs and COVID-19 children can indeed make up a significant share of all patients, so the topic is understandably sensitive for parents.

For the Mykolaiv region this story does not seem a distant theory. During 2025 and 2026 the region already went through waves of rising ARIs and COVID-19, when children predominated among the sick and hospitals again felt the burden. So news about another variant should be viewed without hysteria, but also without complacency: vaccination, self-isolation when symptomatic and a sensible level of vigilance remain relevant.

Earlier we wrote:

• Over 2,000 schoolchildren in the Mykolaiv region fell ill with flu in a week
• Thousands falling ill: flu and ARI incidence is rising in the Mykolaiv region
• More than 4,000 people fell ill with flu and ARIs in the Mykolaiv region in a week
• Flu incidence in the Mykolaiv district exceeded the epidemic threshold
• COVID-19 is killing again: an unvaccinated man died in the Mykolaiv region