Geographical and temporal distribution of SARS-CoV-2 clades in the WHO European Region, January to June 2020
Erik Alm, Eeva Broberg, Thomas R. Connor, Emma B. Hodcroft, Andrey B. Komissarov, Sebastian Maurer‐Stroh, Angeliki Melidou, Richard A. Neher, Áine O’Toole, Dmitriy Pereyaslov, The WHO European Region sequencing laboratories and GISAID EpiCoV group
Abstract
We show the distribution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) genetic clades over time and between countries and outline potential genomic surveillance objectives. We applied three genomic nomenclature systems to all sequence data from the World Health Organization European Region available until 10 July 2020. We highlight the importance of real-time sequencing and data dissemination in a pandemic situation, compare the nomenclatures and lay a foundation for future European genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2.