(Archive) COVID-19 Variants Detected

This dashboard is no longer being updated as of April 9, 2025. National COVID-19 variant data is available from the CDC. 

Viruses are always changing (mutating). These changes are known as variants, or new strains. A new strain is slightly different than the previous strain.

NCDHHS tracked variants weekly to see which are increasing over time in the state. Early detection of new variants helped guide North Carolina’s pandemic response. This tracking ended April 9, 2025, due to federal funding cuts impacting NCDHHS staffing.

This dashboard shows the percentage of variants reported each week by laboratories that used sequencing to identify COVID-19 variants. Sequencing was only performed on a small proportion of positive tests statewide, and not all laboratories that sequenced reported results to NCBI Virus.