January 21, 2021

Genomic Epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 Reveals Multiple Lineages and Early Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Lombardy, Italy

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Geographic Spread

Keywords (Tags): transmission

Sequence analysis of 346 whole SARS-CoV-2 genomes collected from Italy suggest that up to 7 viral lineages were circulating in the country between February and April 2020. Two lineages likely originated from Italy, including the B.1 lineage that is hypothesized to have given rise to variants emerging from the UK and South Africa. Local transmission clusters were present within three lineages, which suggests that sustained community transmission was present before the first detected case in Italy on February 20, 2020.

Alteri et al. (Jan 19, 2021). Genomic Epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 Reveals Multiple Lineages and Early Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Lombardy, Italy. Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20688-x