Genomic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in Rwanda reveals the importance of incoming travelers on lineage diversity.

ABSTRACT: COVID-19 transmission rates are often linked to locally circulating strains of SARS-CoV-2. Here we describe 203 SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequences analyzed from strains circulating in Rwanda from May 2020 to February 2021. In particular, we report a shift in variant distribution towards the emerging sub-lineage A.23.1 that is currently dominating. Furthermore, we report the detection of the first Rwandan cases of the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants of concern among incoming travelers tested at Kigali International Airport. To assess the importance of viral introductions from neighboring countries and local transmission, we exploit available individual travel history metadata to inform spatio-temporal phylogeographic inference, enabling us to take into account infections from unsampled location

SUBMITTER: Butera Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8481346 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature