To identify and track SARS-CoV-2 variants, CDC uses genomic surveillance. CDC's national genomic surveillance system collects SARS-CoV-2 specimens for sequencing through the National SARS-CoV-2 Strain Surveillance (NS3) program, as well as SARS-CoV-2 sequences generated by commercial or academic laboratories contracted by CDC and state or local public health laboratories. Viral genomic sequences are analyzed and classified as a particular variant. The proportions of variants in a population are estimated nationally, by HHS region, and by jurisdiction. The thousands of sequences analyzed every week through CDC’s national genomic sequencing and bioinformatics efforts fuel this comprehensive and population-based U.S. surveillance system established to identify and monitor the spread of variants.

These data appear on the CDC COVID Data Tracker at the following URL: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions

For more information on how these data are generated and used to provide estimates of variant proportions, please see the following references: