Osong Public Health Res Perspect . Genomic Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2: Distribution of Clades in the Republic of Korea in 2020

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Osong Public Health Res Perspect


. 2021 Feb;12(1):37-43.
doi: 10.24171/j.phrp.2021.12.1.06.
Genomic Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2: Distribution of Clades in the Republic of Korea in 2020


Ae Kyung Park ¹ , Il-Hwan Kim ¹ , Junyoung Kim ² , Jeong-Min Kim ¹ , Heui Man Kim ¹ , Chae Young Lee ¹ , Myung-Guk Han ³ , Gi-Eun Rhie ⁴ , Donghyok Kwon ⁵ , Jeong-Gu Nam ⁶ , Young-Joon Park ⁷ , Jin Gwack ⁷ , Nam-Joo Lee ¹ , SangHee Woo ¹ , Jin Sun No ⁴ , Jaehee Lee ¹ , Jeemin Ha ⁸ , JeeEun Rhee ¹ , Cheon-Kwon Yoo ⁹ , Eun-Jin Kim ¹



Affiliations

• PMID: 33659153
• PMCID: PMC7899228
• DOI: 10.24171/j.phrp.2021.12.1.06

Abstract

Since a novel beta-coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first reported in December 2019, there has been a rapid global spread of the virus. Genomic surveillance was conducted on samples isolated from infected individuals to monitor the spread of genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Korea. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency performed whole genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in Korea for 1 year (January 2020 to January 2021). A total of 2,488 SARS-CoV-2 cases were sequenced (including 648 cases from abroad). Initially, the prevalent clades of SARS-CoV-2 were the S and V clades, however, by March 2020, GH clade was the most dominant. Only international travelers were identified as having G or GR clades, and since the first variant 501Y.V1 was identified (from a traveler from the United Kingdom on December 22^nd, 2020), a total of 27 variants of 501Y.V1, 501Y.V2, and 484K.V2 have been classified (as of January 25^th, 2021). The results in this study indicated that quarantining of travelers entering Korea successfully prevented dissemination of the SARS-CoV-2 variants in Korea.

Keywords: Republic of Korea; SARS-CoV-2; whole-genome sequencing.