New SARS-CoV-2 variant emerges in the U.S. Even as the rollout of vaccines all over the world brings a glimmer of hope that the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may end in the near future, new variants continue to emerge, some with the potential to escape vaccine-induced or therapeutic antibodies. Now, a new preprint research paper published on the bioRxiv* server describes a new American variant that may have become the dominant strain in the USA. New regional variants arise over the course of a pandemic in part due to lockdowns, which restrict the population movement over a period of time. Another factor is the occurrence of multiple mutations at the same time. Epidemiologic surveillance of an infectious outbreak may involve genomic sequencing, which can allow new variants to be identified early in the course of the disease.