TAIWAN/SINGAPORE: A 10-year-old Singaporean girl was found to be carrying the BA.3.2 COVID-19 variant upon arrival in Taiwan, health authorities said.
As reported by Yan.sg, the girl arrived on March 14 and was stopped after registering a fever of 38.5°C. Subsequent testing confirmed the BA.3.2 variant, with the case announced on March 30 after gene sequencing was completed.
Taiwanese authorities remarked that she had not received a COVID-19 vaccine in nearly a year. She has since left Taiwan and is in stable condition. Fortunately, there has been no transmission of the virus to others within Taiwan so far.
Taiwan reported that this is its first detected case of the BA.3.2 variant, which has previously been identified in other countries and is linked to the Omicron BA.3 lineage. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified it as a “variant under monitoring.”
Singapore’s Ministry of Health has not reported any local cases of BA.3.2. The authorities have not commented on the recent Taiwan cases. According to the previous guidelines, current vaccines remain effective in preventing severe illness and continue to encourage booster vaccinations for vulnerable groups.
In September 2025, the WHO’s 8th Global Risk Assessment lowered COVID-19’s worldwide health risk from “high” to “moderate”. Its current update in February 2026 kept the “moderate” level.
According to a recent report by CBS News, the BA.3.2 variant is also called the ‘Cicada’, and it was first identified in November 2024. Since then, it has spread to at least 23 countries, and at least 25 states in the US have detected cases as of February 2026.
The variant is a member of the Omicron family and is highly mutated, having 70 to 75 mutations. It was also reported that a recent study in the journal The Lancet found that the current COVID-19 vaccine is less effective against BA.3.2, though it still provides protection to an extent.
With this, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, Dr William Schaffner, stated: “These are still early days… But at the moment, the conclusion seems to be there is this capacity for this new variant to evade some of the protections we have all acquired over the years.”
Fortunately, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not reported an increase in severe illnesses stemming from COVID-19. Case rates, emergency visits, and hospitalisations are trending downward. However, cases may vary from different states and countries.
This article (10-year-old Singaporean girl tests positive for BA.3.2 variant in Taiwan, first case reported) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.
