Regional importation and asymmetric within-country spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in the Netherlands.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Variants of concern (VOCs) of SARS-CoV-2 have caused resurging waves of infections worldwide. In the Netherlands, the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta VOCs circulated widely between September 2020 and August 2021. We sought to elucidate how various control measures, including targeted flight restrictions, had impacted the introduction and spread of these VOCs in the Netherlands.

Methods

We performed phylogenetic analyses on 39,844 SARS-CoV-2 genomes collected under the Dutch national surveillance program.

Results

We found that all four VOCs were introduced before targeted flight restrictions were imposed on countries where the VOCs first emerged. Importantly, foreign introductions, predominantly from other European countries, continued during these restriction

SUBMITTER: Han AX 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9470152 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature