{"id":548922,"date":"2026-03-27T18:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/548922\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T18:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T18:30:08","slug":"world-health-organization-tracking-new-covid-variant-found-in-more-than-20-states-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/548922\/","title":{"rendered":"World Health Organization tracking new COVID variant, found in more than 20 states :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new COVID variant has been identified, causing a rise in cases worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The variant known as Cicada had been found in at least 23 countries, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/mmwr\/volumes\/75\/wr\/mm7510a1.htm#contribAff\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Disease Control (CDC).<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was first identified in South Africa in November 2024. It spread very slowly, and experts aren&#8217;t sure why the variant is causing an increase in cases now.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While this strain hasn&#8217;t contributed for a large number of new COVID cases across the United States, it has been found in wastewater in more than 20 states.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, mutates constantly and creates new variants often. However, experts warn this variant may cause more strain on immune systems. Cicada may have immunity from vaccines or prior infections.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, this variant is not thought to cause as severe reactions as previous strains of the virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cicada is being monitored closely by health officials and in December 2025, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/activities\/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">World Health Organization<\/a> classified as &#8220;variant under monitoring&#8221;.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new COVID variant has been identified, causing a rise in cases worldwide.\u00a0 The variant known as Cicada&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[4000,97,10643,5599,210721],"class_list":["post-548922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-covid-19","tag-health","tag-pandemic","tag-public-health","tag-public-health-alert"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}