High prevalence of an alpha variant lineage with a premature stop codon in ORF7a in Iraq, winter 2020-2021.

ABSTRACT: Since the first reported case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China, SARS-CoV-2 has been spreading worldwide. Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 has had a critical role in tracking the emergence, introduction, and spread of new variants, which may affect transmissibility, pathogenicity, and escape from infection or vaccine-induced immunity. As anticipated, the rapid increase in COVID-19 infections in Iraq in February 2021 is due to the introduction of variants of concern during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand the molecular epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 during the second wave in Iraq (2021), we sequenced 76 complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes using NGS technology and identified genomic mutations and proportions of circulating variants among these. Also, we performed a

SUBMITTER: Al-Rashedi NAM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9135184 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature