Multiple early introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into a global travel hub in the Middle East
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
International travel played a significant role in the early global spread of SARS-CoV-2. Understanding transmission patterns from different regions of the world will further inform global dynamics of the pandemic. Using data from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a major international travel hub in the Middle East, we establish SARS-CoV-2 full genome sequences from the index and early COVID-19 patients in the UAE. The genome sequences are analysed in the context of virus introductions, chain of transmissions, and possible links to earlier strains from other regions of the world. Phylogenetic analysis showed multiple spatiotemporal introductions of SARS-CoV-2 into the UAE from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East during the early phase of the pandemic. We also provide evidence for early community-based transmission and catalogue new mutations in SARS-CoV-2 strains in the UAE. Our findings contribute to the understanding of the global transmission network of SARS-CoV-2.
Article activity feed
-
-
-
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.06.080606: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was approved by the Dubai Scientific Research Ethics Committee - Dubai Health Authority (approval number #DSREC-04/2020_02).
Consent: The requirement for informed consent was waived as this study was part of a public health surveillance and outbreak investigation in the UAE.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources All 182 sequences, including the 25 UAE sequences generated in this study, were analysed using Nexstrain [10], which consists of Augur v6.4.3 pipeline for multiple sequence alignment (MAFFT v7.455 [11]) and … SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.06.080606: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: This study was approved by the Dubai Scientific Research Ethics Committee - Dubai Health Authority (approval number #DSREC-04/2020_02).
Consent: The requirement for informed consent was waived as this study was part of a public health surveillance and outbreak investigation in the UAE.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources All 182 sequences, including the 25 UAE sequences generated in this study, were analysed using Nexstrain [10], which consists of Augur v6.4.3 pipeline for multiple sequence alignment (MAFFT v7.455 [11]) and phylogenetic tree construction (IQtree v1.6.12 [12]). Augursuggested: NoneMAFFTsuggested: (MAFFT, RRID:SCR_011811)Tree visualization and annotations were performed in FigTree v1.4.4 [13] for Figure 1 and in auspice v2.13.0 tool [10] for Figure 2. FigTreesuggested: (FigTree, RRID:SCR_008515)Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Limitations included the inability to conduct full whole genome sequencing on more samples most likely due to low viral load issues, although we were able to deduce the origin of transmission in most of those individuals based on travel history. Regardless, this study contributes important molecular epidemiological data that can be used to further understand the global transmission network of SARS-CoV-2 [8].
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
-
-