@article{Tsui_J-2023_150020,
title = {Genomic assessment of invasion dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1},
author = {Tsui, J. and McCrone, J. and Lambert, B. and Bajaj, S. and Inward, R. and Bosetti, P. and Pena, R. and Tegally, H. and Hill, V. and Zarebski, A. and Peacock, T. and Liu, L. and Wu, N. and Davis, M. and Bogoch, I. and Khan, K. and Kall, M. and Abdul Aziz, N. and Colquhoun, R. and O'Toole, Á. and Jackson, B. and Dasgupta, A. and Wilkinson, E. and De Oliveira, T. and Connor, T. and Loman, N. and Colizza, V. and Fraser, C. and Volz, E. and Ji, X. and Gutierrez, B. and Chand, M. and Dellicour, S. and Cauchemez, S. and Raghwani, J. and Suchard, M. and Lemey, P. and Rambaut, A. and Pybus, O. and Kraemer, M.},
month = {jul},
year = {2023},
abstract = {Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern (VOCs) now arise in the context of heterogeneous human connectivity and population immunity. Through a large-scale phylodynamic analysis of 115,622 Omicron BA.1 genomes, we identified &gt;6,000 introductions of the antigenically distinct VOC into England and analyzed their local transmission and dispersal history. We find that six of the eight largest English Omicron lineages were already transmitting when Omicron was first reported in southern Africa (22 November 2021). Multiple datasets show that importation of Omicron continued despite subsequent restrictions on travel from southern Africa as a result of export from well-connected secondary locations. Initiation and dispersal of Omicron transmission lineages in England was a two-stage process that can be explained by models of the country's human geography and hierarchical travel network. Our results enable a comparison of the processes that drive the invasion of Omicron and other VOCs across multiple spatial scales.},
pages = {336-343},
volume = {381},
issue = {6655},
journal = {Science},
publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adg6605},
}
