Phylogenetic-based inference reveals distinct transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern Gamma and lineage P.2 in Brazil

Autor: A Magalhaes, Edson Delatorre, Tiago Gräf, Marilda M. Siqueira, erika Lopes Rocha Batista, Ricardo Khouri, Alexandre Freitas da Silva, Mirleide Cordeiro dos Santos, Marcelo F. C. Gomes, Fernando Vinhal, Fabio Miyajima, Filipe Zimmer Dezordi, Vanessa Leiko Oikawa Cardoso, Gonzalo Bello, Katia Correa de Oliveira Santos, Helisson Faoro, Felipe Gomes Naveca, Gabriel Luz Wallau, Paola Cristina Resende
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Popis: The COVID-19 epidemic in Brazil experienced two major country-wide lineage replacements, the first driven by the lineage P.2, formerly classified as variant of interest (VOI) Zeta in late 2020 and the second by the variant of concern (VOC) Gamma in early 2021. To better understand how these SARS-CoV-2 lineage turnovers occurred in Brazil, we analyzed 11,724 high-quality SARS-CoV-2 whole genomes of samples collected in different country regions between September 2020 and April 2021. Our findings indicate that the spatial dispersion of both variants in Brazil was driven by short and long-distance viral transmission. The lineage P.2 harboring Spike mutation E484K probably emerged around late July 2020 in the Rio de Janeiro (RJ) state, which contributed with most (∼50%) inter-state viral disseminations, and only became locally established in most Brazilian states by October 2020. The VOC Gamma probably arose in November 2020 in the Amazonas (AM) state, which was responsible for 60-70% of the inter-state viral dissemination, and the earliest timing of community transmission of this VOC in many Brazilian states was already traced to December 2020. We estimate that variant Gamma was 1.56-3.06 more transmissible than variant P.2 co-circulating in RJ and that the median effective reproductive number (Re) of Gamma in RJ and SP states (Re = 1.59-1.91) was lower than in AM (Re = 3.55). In summary, although the epicenter of the lineage P.2 dissemination in Brazil was the heavily interconnected Southeastern region, it displayed a slower rate of spatial spread than the VOC Gamma originated in the more isolated Northern Brazilian region. Our findings also support that the VOC Gamma was more transmissible than lineage P.2, although the viral Re of the VOC varied according to the geographic context.
Databáze: OpenAIRE