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

• Published in: Euro surveillance : bulletin européen sur les maladies transmissibles Vol. 26; no. 24
• Main Authors: Campbell, Finlay, Archer, Brett, Laurenson-Schafer, Henry, Jinnai, Yuka, Konings, Franck, Batra, Neale, Pavlin, Boris, Vandemaele, Katelijn, Van Kerkhove, Maria D, Jombart, Thibaut, Morgan, Oliver, le Polain de Waroux, Olivier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sweden Centre Europeen pour la Surveillance Epidemiologique du SIDA (European Centre for the Epidemiological Monitoring of AIDS) 17.06.2021; European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
• Subjects: Antibodies; Basic Reproduction Number; COVID-19; Glycoproteins; Humans; Primary care; Rapid Communication; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; China; COVID-19; Variants of concern; SARS-CoV-2; Variants of interest
• ISSN: 1560-7917; 1025-496X; 1560-7917
• DOI: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.24.2100509

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.