A year of genomic surveillance reveals how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic unfolded in Africa

2021/10/09 by Eduan Wilkinson, Marta Giovanetti, Houriiyah Tegally +342 · 239 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Medicine · #2019-20 coronavirus outbreak #Animal Virus Infections Studies #Biology #COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies #Coronavirus #Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) #Development economics #Disease #Economics #Geography #Infectious disease (medical specialty) #Medicine #Outbreak #Pandemic #SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research #Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) #Transmission (telecommunications) #Virology

paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.abj4336

published in Science 374(6566), 423-431 (American Association for the Advancement of Science)

openalex publication_date 2021/10/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

The progression of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in Africa has so far been heterogeneous, and the full impact is not yet well understood. In this study, we describe the genomic epidemiology using a dataset of 8746 genomes from 33 African countries and two overseas territories. We show that the epidemics in most countries were initiated by importations predominantly from Europe, which diminished after the early introduction of international travel restrictions. As the pandemic progressed, ongoing transmission in many countries and increasing mobility led to the emergence and spread within the continent of many variants of concern and interest, such as B.1.351, B.1.525, A.23.1, and C.1.1. Although distorted by low sampling numbers and blind spots, the findings highlight that Africa must not be left behind in the global pandemic response, otherwise it could become a source for new variants.

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