Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

June 7, 2021

Early Epidemiological Signatures of Novel SARS-CoV-2 Variants Establishment of B.1.617.2 in England

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  • [Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A study in the UK suggested that many SARS-CoV-2 cases were S-gene positive, a pattern associated with the B.1.617.2 variant, which the authors suggest may become dominant over B.1.1.7. In early 2021, the majority of positive SARS-CoV-2 tests in England were genomically sequenced (74% in April 2021), with the sequencing subject to processing delays: 21% of sequencing results were available within 1 week, 44% within 2 weeks, and 66% within 3 weeks (as of 27th May 2021). S-gene positive cases were estimated to be doubling every 7 days overall in England, and as rapidly as every 5 days in some regions with known outbreaks of B.1.617.2. The authors suggest prioritizing sequencing of S-gene positive cases in countries where this variant is newly detected.

Challen et al. (June 7, 2021). Early Epidemiological Signatures of Novel SARS-CoV-2 Variants Establishment of B.1.617.2 in England. Pre-print downloaded Jun 7 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.05.21258365