1. Territorywide Study of Early Coronavirus Disease Outbreak, Hong Kong, China.
- Author
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Siu-Sing Leung, Kenneth, Ting-Leung Ng, Timothy, Ka-Lun Wu, Alan, Chong-Yee Yau, Miranda, Hiu-Yin Lao, Ming-Pan Choi, King-Gee Tam, Kingsley, Lam-Kwong Lee, Kin-Chung Wong, Barry, Yat-Man Ho, Alex, Kam-Tong Yip, Kwok-Cheung Lung, Wai-To Liu, Raymond, Yuk-Keung Tso, Eugene, Wai-Shing Leung, Man-Chun Chan, Yuk-Yung Ng, Kit-Man Sin, Sau-Chun Fung, Kitty, and Ka-Yee Chau, Sandy
- Abstract
Initial cases of coronavirus disease in Hong Kong were imported from mainland China. A dramatic increase in case numbers was seen in February 2020. Most case-patients had no recent travel history, suggesting the presence of transmission chains in the local community. We collected demographic, clinical, and epidemiologic data from 50 patients, who accounted for 53.8% of total reported case-patients as of February 28, 2020. We performed whole-genome sequencing to determine phylogenetic relationship and transmission dynamics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections. By using phylogenetic analysis, we attributed the community outbreak to 2 lineages; 1 harbored a common mutation, Orf3a-G251V, and accounted for 88.0% of the cases in our study. The estimated time to the most recent common ancestor of local coronavirus disease outbreak was December 24, 2019, with an evolutionary rate of 3.04 × 10-3 substitutions/site/year. The reproduction number was 1.84, indicating ongoing community spread. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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