Retrospective Insights of the COVID-19 Epidemic in the Major Latin American City, São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: Assato, Patricia Akemi [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Clemente, Luan Gaspar, Giovanetti, Marta, Ribeiro, Gabriela, Lima, Alex Ranieri Jeronimo, Palmieri, Melissa, de Moraes, Leonardo Nazario [UNESP], Kashima, Simone, Fukumasu, Heidge, Nogueira, Maurício Lacerda, Alcantara, Luiz Carlos Junior, Nicolodelli, Aline Lais, Martins, Antonio Jorge, Petry, Bruna, Banho, Cecilia Artico, Dos Santos Barros, Claudia Renata, Moncau-Gadbem, Cristina Tschorny, Moretti, Debora Botequio, De La Roque, Debora Glenda Lima, Marqueze, Elaine Cristina, Mattos, Elisangela Chicaroni, Silva, Fabiana Erica Vilanova Da, Da Costa, Felipe Allan Da Silva [UNESP], Cacherik, Giselle, De Souza Todao Bernardino, Jardelina, Lesbon, Jessika Cristina Chagas, Sacchetto, Lívia, De Lima, Loyze Paola Oliveira, Caldeira, Luiz Artur Vieira, Martininghi, Maiara, Moraes, Marília Mazzi, Poleti, Mirele Daiana, Cattony Neto, Pedro De Queiroz, Cassano, Raquel De Lello Rocha Campos, Brassaloti, Ricardo Augusto, Slavov, Svetoslav Nanev, Viala, Vincent Louis, Coutinho, Luiz Lehmann, Grotto, Rejane Maria Tommasini [UNESP], Neto, Raul Machado, Covas, Dimas Tadeu, Sampaio, Sandra Coccuzzo, Elias, Maria Carolina, Souza-Neto, Jayme A. [UNESP]
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v15020327; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/246964
• topic: Brazil; COVID-19; genomic surveillance; SARS-CoV-2; São Paulo

São Paulo is the financial center of Brazil, with a population of over 12 million, that receives travelers from all over the world for business and tourism. It was the first city in Brazil to report a case of COVID-19 that rapidly spread across the city despite the implementation of the restriction measures. Despite many reports, much is still unknown regarding the genomic diversity and transmission dynamics of this virus in the city of São Paulo. Thus, in this study, we provide a retrospective overview of the COVID-19 epidemic in São Paulo City, Southeastern, Brazil, by generating a total of 9995 near-complete genome sequences from all the city’s different macro-regions (North, West, Central, East, South, and Southeast). Our analysis revealed that multiple independent introduction events of different variants (mainly Gamma, Delta, and Omicron) occurred throughout time. Additionally, our estimates of viral movement within the different macro-regions further suggested that the East and the Southeast regions were the largest contributors to the Gamma and Delta viral exchanges to other regions. Meanwhile, the North region had a higher contribution to the dispersion of the Omicron variant. Together, our results reinforce the importance of increasing SARS-CoV-2 genomic monitoring within the city and the country to track the real-time evolution of the virus and to detect earlier any eventual emergency of new variants of concern that could undermine the fight against COVID-19 in Brazil and worldwide.