SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern are associated with lower RT-PCR amplification cycles between January and March 2021 in France
Bénédicte Roquebert, Stéphanie Haïm‐Boukobza, Sabine Trombert‐Paolantoni, Emmanuel Lecorché, Laura Verdurme, Vincent Foulongne, Sonia Burrel, Samuel Alizon, Mircea T. Sofonea
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 variants raise concern regarding the mortality caused by COVID-19 epidemics. We analyse 88,375 cycle amplification (Ct) values from variant-specific RT-PCR tests performed between January 26 and March 13, 2021. We estimate that on March 12, nearly 85% of the infections were caused by the Alpha variant and that its transmission advantage over wild type strains was between 38 and 44%. We also find that tests positive for Alpha and Beta/Gamma variants exhibit significantly lower cycle threshold (Ct) values.
Topics & Concepts
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)2019-20 coronavirus outbreakTransmission (telecommunications)VirologyBiologyMedicineInternal medicineOutbreakInfectious disease (medical specialty)DiseaseElectrical engineeringEngineeringSARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 ResearchSARS-CoV-2 detection and testingViral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology