Abstract
Remaining a major healthcare concern with nearly 27 million confirmed cases worldwide at the time of writing, novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus - 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused more than 880 thousand deaths since its outbreak in China, December 2019. First case of a person testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection within the territory of the Republic of Latvia was registered on 2nd of March 2020, nine days prior to the pandemic declaration by WHO. Since then, more than 230 000 tests were carried out confirming a total of 1330 cases of COVID-19 in the country as of 20th of August 2020. Rapidly reacting to the spread of the infection, an ongoing sequencing campaign was started mid-March in collaboration with the local testing laboratories, with an ultimate goal in sequencing as much local viral isolates as possible, resulting in first full-length SARS-CoV-2 isolate genome sequences from the Baltics region being made publicly available in early April. With 109 viral isolates representing ∼8.2% of the total COVID-19 cases in the country being completely sequenced as of today, here we provide a first report on the genetic diversity of Latvian SARS-CoV-2 isolates.
Competing Interest Statement
The authors have declared no competing interest.
Funding Statement
This research is funded by the Ministry of Education and Science, Republic of Latvia, project "Establishment of COVID-19 related biobank and integrated platform for research data in Latvia", project No. VPP-COVID-2020/1-0016, project "Multidisciplinary approach to monitor, mitigate and contain COVID19 and other future epidemics in Latvia", project No. VPP-COVID-2020/1-0008 and 04.06.2020. service contract No.23-11.3e/20/64 "Study on the epidemiology and phylogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 virus in Latvia" within the framework of ERDF project No.1.1.1.5 / 17 / I / 002 "Integrated national level measures for strengthening interest representations for research and development of Latvia as part of European Research Area".
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I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.
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The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:
The study was approved by the Central Medical Ethics Committee of Latvia (protocol No. 01-29.1/2429 and 01-29.1/1677).
All necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived.
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Paper in collection COVID-19 SARS-CoV-2 preprints from medRxiv and bioRxiv
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Sergey Brin Family Foundation, California Institute of Technology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Imperial College London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Washington, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
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