Volume 26, Number 11—November 2020
Dispatch
In-Flight Transmission of SARS-CoV-2
, and Deborah Watson-Jones
Table
Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the SARS-CoV-2 virus sequences from 4 patients on the same flight from Boston, Massachusetts, USA, to Hong Kong, China*
| GISAID accession no. | Source | Sample collection date | Nucleotide positions† |
Nucleotide difference‡ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 241 | 3037 | 9857 | 11083 | 14408 | 23403 | ||||
| 402124 | Reference sequence WIV04† | 2019 Dec 30 | C | C | C | G | C | A | 6 |
| 476802 | Patient A | 2020 Mar 14 | T | T | T | T§ | T¶ | G# | 0 |
| 476801 | Patient B | 2020 Mar 15 | T | T | T | T§ | T¶ | G# | 0 |
| 476803 | Patient C | 2020 Mar 17 | T | T | T | T§ | T¶ | G# | 0 |
| 476804 | Patient D | 2020 Mar 19 | T | T | T | T§ | T¶ | G# | 0 |
| 460471 | Massachusetts, USA | 2020 Mar 27 | T | T | C | G | T¶ | G# | 2 |
| 427528 | New York, USA | 2020 Mar 12 | T | T | C | G | T¶ | G# | 2 |
| 418354 | Ontario, Canada | 2020 Mar 15 | T | T | C | G | T¶ | G# | 2 |
*These 4 viral genomes are unique among the sequences deposited into the GISAID database (http://platform.gisaid.org) January 10–June 13, 2020. They contain 6 polymorphisms compared with the WIV04 reference sequence of SARS-CoV-2, 3 of which are nonconservative. SARS-CoV-2 genomes that differ from these by 2 nt had been reported from Massachusetts, USA; New York, USA; and Ontario, Canada, in March 2020. SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. †A 2019 reference sequence from a patient in Wuhan, China (hCoV-19/Wuhan/WIV04/2019). The nucleotide positions shown are relative to this reference sequence (GISAID accession ID EPL_ISL_402124). ‡No. nucleotide differences relative to the virus genomes of patients A–D. §Nonconservative polymorphism at nucleotide position 11083, which corresponds to a Leu (TTG) to Phe (TTT), L37F, amino acid change in the NSP6 protein. ¶Nonconservative polymorphism at nucleotide position 14408, which corresponds to a Pro (CCT) to Leu (CTT), P323L, amino acid change in the NSP12 protein. #Nonconservative polymorphism at nucleotide position 23403, which corresponds to an Asp (GAT) to Gly (GGT), D614G, amino acid change in the spike protein.