Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Apr 6, 2020
Date Accepted: May 12, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: May 15, 2020
A snapshot of SARS-CoV-2 genome availability up to April 2020 and its implications
ABSTRACT
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has been growing exponentially, affecting nearly 900 thousand people and causing enormous distress to economies and societies worldwide. A plethora of analyses based on viral sequences has already been published, in scientific journals as well as through non-peer reviewed channels, to investigate SARS-CoV-2 genetic heterogeneity and spatiotemporal dissemination. We examined full genome sequences currently available to assess the presence of sufficient information for reliable phylogenetic and phylogeographic studies in countries with the highest toll of confirmed cases. Although number of-available full-genomes is growing daily, and the full dataset contains sufficient phylogenetic information that would allow reliable inference of phylogenetic relationships, country-specific SARS-CoV-2 datasets still present severe limitations. Studies assessing within country spread or transmission clusters should be considered preliminary at best, or hypothesis generating. Hence the need for continuing concerted efforts to increase number and quality of the sequences required for robust tracing of the epidemic.
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© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.