Study: Most corona cases in Israel stem from US virus and super-spreaders

[Shiloh]

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/05/21/study-most-corona-cases-in-israel-stem-from-us-virus/

Study: Most corona cases in Israel stem from US virus
Researchers at Tel Aviv University estimate that more than 80% of infections originate in just 10% of patients or less. This means that most infections in Israel are from "super-spreaders."
By ILH Staff
Published on 05-21-2020 13:37
Last modified: 05-21-2020 13:37

A genetic study at Tel Aviv University has found that most Israelis COVID-19 patients were infected by a virus originating in the United States and not directly by the virus that originated from China.

The study was led by Dr. Adi Stern of the molecular microbiology and biotechnology department in the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University...

 

[Emily]

Here is the Globes article that Hayom references.

https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-most-israeli-covid-19-cases-stem-from-us-virus-study-1001329325

Research at Tel Aviv University finds that no Israeli cases originate directly from China, and only 1% of Israelis have been infected.
20 May, 2020 11:50
Andre Tebkof

...
According to Dr. Stern, a characteristic of the virus is that it accumulates mutations that do not affect its behavior, but that make it possible to trace the chain of infection from country to country. For example, at the beginning of the pandemic in China, one or two mutations were added. A virus like this with one mutation made its way to Europe and accumulated more mutations, and from there it passed to the US, and so on. The mutations represent a sort of barcode that make it possible to follow the virus's path. The study finds that about 70% of Covid-19 patients in Israel were infected by a virus originating in the US. 26% belong to the infection chain originating in Europe.

Although all genome sequencing identifies China as the starting point, there are no cases in Israel originating directly from China or from other Asian countries.