Increased transmissibility and global spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern as at June 2021

Euro Surveill. 2021 Jun;26(24):2100509. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.24.2100509.

Abstract

We present a global analysis of the spread of recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 variants and estimate changes in effective reproduction numbers at country-specific level using sequence data from GISAID. Nearly all investigated countries demonstrated rapid replacement of previously circulating lineages by the World Health Organization-designated variants of concern, with estimated transmissibility increases of 29% (95% CI: 24-33), 25% (95% CI: 20-30), 38% (95% CI: 29-48) and 97% (95% CI: 76-117), respectively, for B.1.1.7, B.1.351, P.1 and B.1.617.2.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Variants of concern; Variants of interest.

MeSH terms

  • Basic Reproduction Number
  • COVID-19*
  • Humans
  • SARS-CoV-2*