1. Spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020
- Author
-
Hodcroft E.B., Zuber M., Nadeau S., Vaughan T.G., Crawford K.H.D., Althaus C.L., Reichmuth M.L., Bowen J.E., Walls A.C., Corti D., Bloom J.D., Veesler D., Mateo D., Hernando A., Comas I., González-Candelas F., Goig G.A., Chiner-Oms Á., Cancino-Muñoz I., López M.G., Torres-Puente M., Gomez-Navarro I., Jiménez-Serrano S., Ruiz-Roldán L., Bracho M.A., García-González N., Martínez-Priego L., Galán-Vendrell I., Ruiz-Hueso P., De Marco G., Ferrús M.L., Carbó-Ramírez S., D’Auria G., Coscollá M., Ruiz-Rodríguez P., Roig-Sena F.J., Sanmartín I., Garcia-Souto D., Pequeno-Valtierra A., Tubio J.M.C., Rodríguez-Castro J., Rabella N., Navarro F., Miró E., Rodríguez-Iglesias M., Galán-Sanchez F., Rodriguez-Pallares S., de Toro M., Escudero M.B., Azcona-Gutiérrez J.M., Alberdi M.B., Mayor A., García-Basteiro A.L., Moncunill G., Dobaño C., Cisteró P., García-de-Viedma D., Pérez-Lago L., Herranz M., Sicilia J., Catalán-Alonso P., Muñoz P., Muñoz-Cuevas C., Rodríguez-Rodríguez G., Alberola-Enguidanos J., Nogueira J.M., Camarena J.J., Rezusta A., Tristancho-Baró A., Milagro A., Martínez-Cameo N.F., Gracia-Grataloup Y., Martró E., Bordoy A.E., Not A., Antuori-Torres A., Benito R., Algarate S., Bueno J., del Pozo J.L., Boga J.A., Castelló-Abietar C., Rojo-Alba S., Alvarez-Argüelles M.E., Melon S., Aranzamendi-Zaldumbide M., Vergara-Gómez A., Fernández-Pinero J., Martínez M.J., Vila J., Rubio E., Peiró-Mestres A., Navero-Castillejos J., Posada D., Valverde D., Estévez-Gómez N., Fernandez-Silva I., de Chiara L., Gallego-García P., Varela N., Moreno R., Tirado M.D., Gomez-Pinedo U., Gozalo-Margüello M., Eliecer-Cano M., Méndez-Legaza J.M., Rodríguez-Lozano J., Siller M., Pablo-Marcos D., Oliver A., Reina J., López-Causapé C., Canut-Blasco A., Hernáez-Crespo S., Cordón M.L.A., Lecároz-Agara M.-C., Gómez-González C., Aguirre-Quiñonero A., López-Mirones J.I., Fernández-Torres M., Almela-Ferrer M.R., Gonzalo-Jiménez N., Ruiz-García M.M., Galiana A., Sanchez-Almendro J., Cilla G., Montes M., Piñeiro L., Sorarrain A., Marimón J.M., Gomez-Ruiz M.D., López-Hontangas J.L., González Barberá E.M., Navarro-Marí J.M., Pedrosa-Corral I., Sanbonmatsu-Gámez S., Pérez-González C., Chamizo-López F., Bordes-Benítez A., Navarro D., Albert E., Torres I., Gascón I., Torregrosa-Hetland C.J., Pastor-Boix E., Cascales-Ramos P., Fuster-Escrivá B., Gimeno-Cardona C., Ocete M.D., Medina-Gonzalez R., González-Cantó J., Martínez-Macias O., Palop-Borrás B., de Toro I., Mediavilla-Gradolph M.C., Pérez-Ruiz M., González-Recio Ó., Gutiérrez-Rivas M., Simarro-Córdoba E., Lozano-Serra J., Robles-Fonseca L., de Salazar A., Viñuela-González L., Chueca N., García F., Gómez-Camarasa C., Carvajal A., de la Puente R., Martín-Sánchez V., Fregeneda-Grandes J.-M., Molina A.J., Argüello H., Fernández-Villa T., Farga-Martí M.A., Domínguez-Márquez V., Costa-Alcalde J.J., Trastoy R., Barbeito-Castiñeiras G., Coira A., Pérez-del-Molino M.L., Aguilera A., Planas A.M., Soriano A., Fernandez-Cádenas I., Pérez-Tur J., Marcos M.Á., Moreno-Docón A., Viedma E., Mingorance J., Galán-Montemayor J.C., Parra-Grande M., Stadler T., Neher R.A., Swiss National Science Foundation, European Commission, University of Basel, ETH Zurich, National Institute of General Medical Sciences (US), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (US), Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (España), European Research Council, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Hodcroft, Emma B. [0000-0002-0078-2212], Zuber, Moira [0000-0002-4275-8739], Nadeau, Sarah [0000-0003-1008-8918], Vaughan, Timothy G. [0000-0001-6220-2239], Crawford, Katharine H. D. [0000-0002-6223-4019], Althaus, Christian L. [0000-0002-5230-6760], Reichmuth, Martina L. [0000-0001-9345-851X], Bowen, John E. [0000-0003-3590-9727], Walls, Alexandra C. [0000-0002-9636-8330], Corti, Davide [0000-0002-5797-1364], Bloom, Jesse D. [0000-0003-1267-3408], Veesler, David [0000-0002-6019-8675], Mateo, David [0000-0002-1590-4163], Hernando de Castro, Alberto [0000-0003-1180-1068], Comas, Iñaki [0000-0001-5504-9408], González-Candelas, Fernando [0000-0002-0879-5798], Stadler, Tanja [0000-0001-6431-535X], Neher, Richard A. [0000-0003-2525-1407], Hodcroft, Emma B., Zuber, Moira, Nadeau, Sarah, Vaughan, Timothy G., Crawford, Katharine H. D., Althaus, Christian L., Reichmuth, Martina L., Bowen, John E., Walls, Alexandra C., Corti, Davide, Bloom, Jesse D., Veesler, David, Mateo, David, Hernando de Castro, Alberto, Comas, Iñaki, González-Candelas, Fernando, Stadler, Tanja, and Neher, Richard A.
- Subjects
Phylogenetics ,Sars-Cov-2 ,Viral infection ,0303 health sciences ,2019-20 coronavirus outbreak ,Multidisciplinary ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,610 Medicine & health ,3. Good health ,law.invention ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Transmission (mechanics) ,Geography ,360 Social problems & social services ,law ,Development economics ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery ,030304 developmental biology - Abstract
Following its emergence in late 2019, the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)1,2 has been tracked via phylogenetic analysis of viral genome sequences in unprecedented detail3–5. While the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced. However, within Europe travel resumed in the summer of 2020. Here we report on a novel SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20E (EU1), that emerged in Spain in early summer, and subsequently spread across Europe. We find no evidence of increased transmissibility, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions, we estimate 20E (EU1) was introduced hundreds of times to European countries by summertime travelers, likely undermining local efforts to keep SARS-CoV-2 cases low. Our results demonstrate how a variant can rapidly become dominant even in absence of a substantial transmission advantage in favorable epidemiological settings. Genomic surveillance is critical to understanding how travel can impact SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes., This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) through grant numbers 31CA30 196046 (to RAN, EBH, CLA), 31CA30 196267 (to TS), European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme - project EpiPose (No 101003688) (MLR, CLA), core funding by the University of Basel and ETH Zürich, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM120553 to DV), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (DP1AI158186 and HHSN272201700059C to DV), a Pew Biomedical Scholars Award (DV), an Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (DV and JDB), a Fast Grants (DV), and NIAID grants R01AI141707 (JDB) and F30AI149928 (KHDC). SeqCOVID-SPAIN is funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III project COV20/00140, Spanish National Research Council and ERC StG 638553 to IC and BFU2017-89594R from MICIN to FGC. JDB is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF