SARS-CoV-2 Early Screening at the Point of Entry: Travelers From Bangladesh to Italy-July 2020

Martina Rueca; Antonino Di Caro; Cesare Ernesto Maria Gruber; Francesco Messina; Emanuela Giombini; Maria Beatrice Valli; Eleonora Lalle; Simone Lanini; Francesco Vairo; Maria Rosaria Capobianchi; Barbara Bartolini

doi:10.3389/fgene.2021.625607

SARS-CoV-2 Early Screening at the Point of Entry: Travelers From Bangladesh to Italy-July 2020

Front Genet. 2021 Feb 9:12:625607. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2021.625607. eCollection 2021.

Affiliation

¹ National Institute for Infectious Diseases, INMI (Istituto Nazionale per le Malattie Infettive), "Lazzaro Spallanzani" IRCCS (Istituto di ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico), Rome, Italy.

Abstract

We report phylogenetic and mutational analysis by NGS of six SARS-CoV-2 strains from patients flying from Bangladesh to Italy (July 2020). Data suggest that no further circulation of such imported strains occurred in Italy, stating the efficacy of early screening at the point of entry and supporting the importance of molecular epidemiology in monitoring the efficacy of control measures.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; early detection at point of entry; molecular epidemiology; mutations; next generation genome sequencing; phylogenetic analysis.