Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link

Volume 27, Number 3—March 2021

Synopsis

Genomic Evidence of In-Flight Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 Despite Predeparture Testing

Tara Swadi1, Jemma L. Geoghegan1Comments to Author , Tom Devine, Caroline McElnay, Jillian Sherwood, Phil Shoemack, Xiaoyun Ren, Matt Storey, Sarah Jefferies, Erasmus Smit, James Hadfield, Aoife Kenny, Lauren Jelley, Andrew Sporle, Andrea McNeill, G. Edwin Reynolds, Kip Mouldey, Lindsay Lowe, Gerard Sonder, Alexei J. Drummond, Sue Huang, David Welch, Edward C. Holmes, Nigel French, Colin R. Simpson, and Joep de LigtComments to Author 
Author affiliations: New Zealand Ministry of Health, Wellington, New Zealand (T. Swadi, T. Devine, A. Kenny); University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (J.L. Geoghegan); Institute of Environmental Science and Research, Porirua, New Zealand (J.L. Geoghegan, J. Sherwood, X. Ren, M. Storey, S. Jefferies, E. Smit, L. Jelley, A. McNeill, G. Sonder, S. Huang, J. de Ligt); New Zealand Ministry of Health, Wellington (C. McElnay); Bay of Plenty District Health Board, Tauranga, New Zealand (P. Shoemack, K. Mouldey, L. Lowe); Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle, Washington, USA (J. Hadfield); University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand (A. Sporle, A.J. Drummond, D. Welch); iNZight Analytics Ltd., Auckland (A. Sporle); Auckland District Health Board, Auckland (G.E. Reynolds); The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia (E.C. Holmes); Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand (N. French); Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington (C.R. Simpson); University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK (C.R. Simpson)

Main Article

Figure 1

Countries of travel origins for 7 passengers who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection after traveling on the same flight (EK448) from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Auckland, New Zealand, with a refueling stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on September 29, 2020. Asterisks indicate where 6 other genetically identical genomes have been reported (5).

Figure 1. Countries of travel origins for 7 passengers who tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection after traveling on the same flight (EK448) from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Auckland, New Zealand, with a refueling stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on September 29, 2020. Asterisks indicate where 6 other genetically identical genomes have been reported (5).

Main Article

References
  1. Jefferies  S, French  N, Gilkison  C, Graham  G, Hope  V, Marshall  J, et al. COVID-19 in New Zealand and the impact of the national response: a descriptive epidemiological study. Lancet Public Health. 2020;5:e612–23. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  2. International Air Transport Association. Low risk of transmission [cited 2020 Nov 1]. https://www.iata.org/en/youandiata/travelers/health/low-risk-transmission
  3. Freedman  DO, Wilder-Smith  A. In-flight transmission of SARS-CoV-2: a review of the attack rates and available data on the efficacy of face masks. J Travel Med. 2020;27:taaa178; Epub ahead of print. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  4. Murphy  N, Boland  M, Bambury  N, Fitzgerald  M, Comerford  L, Dever  N, et al. A large national outbreak of COVID-19 linked to air travel, Ireland, summer 2020. Euro Surveill. 2020;25:200162. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  5. Elbe  S, Buckland-Merrett  G. Data, disease and diplomacy: GISAID’s innovative contribution to global health. Glob Chall. 2017;1:33–46. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  6. Quick  J. nCoV-2019 sequencing protocol V3 [cited 2020 Nov 1]. https://www.protocols.io/view/ncov-2019-sequencing-protocol-v3-locost-bh42j8y
  7. Freed  NE, Vlková  M, Faisal  MB, Silander  OK. Rapid and inexpensive whole-genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 using 1200 bp tiled amplicons and Oxford Nanopore Rapid Barcoding. Biol Methods Protoc. 2020;5:bpaa014.
  8. Katoh  K, Standley  DM. MAFFT multiple sequence alignment software version 7: improvements in performance and usability. Mol Biol Evol. 2013;30:772–80. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  9. Nguyen  LT, Schmidt  HA, von Haeseler  A, Minh  BQ. IQ-TREE: a fast and effective stochastic algorithm for estimating maximum-likelihood phylogenies. Mol Biol Evol. 2015;32:268–74. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  10. Hasegawa  M, Kishino  H, Yano  T. Dating of the human-ape splitting by a molecular clock of mitochondrial DNA. J Mol Evol. 1985;22:160–74. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  11. Kalyaanamoorthy  S, Minh  BQ, Wong  TKF, von Haeseler  A, Jermiin  LS. ModelFinder: fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates. Nat Methods. 2017;14:587–9. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  12. Hoang  DT, Chernomor  O, von Haeseler  A, Minh  BQ, Vinh  LS. UFBoot2: improving the ultrafast bootstrap approximation. Mol Biol Evol. 2018;35:518–22. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  13. World Health Organization. Novel coronavirus situation report [cited 2020 Nov 1]. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200121-sitrep-1-2019-ncov.pdf
  14. Byrne  AW, McEvoy  D, Collins  AB, Hunt  K, Casey  M, Barber  A, et al. Inferred duration of infectious period of SARS-CoV-2: rapid scoping review and analysis of available evidence for asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID-19 cases. BMJ Open. 2020;10:e039856. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  15. Rambaut  A, Holmes  EC, O’Toole  Á, Hill  V, McCrone  JT, Ruis  C, et al. A dynamic nomenclature proposal for SARS-CoV-2 lineages to assist genomic epidemiology. Nat Microbiol. 2020;5:1403–7. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  16. Choi  EM, Chu  DKW, Cheng  PKC, Tsang  DNC, Peiris  M, Bausch  DG, et al. In-flight transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020;26:2713–6. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  17. Speake  H, Phillips  A, Chong  T, Sikazwe  C, Levy  A, Lang  J, et al. Flight-associated transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 corroborated by whole-genome sequencing. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020;26:2872–80. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar

Main Article

1These authors contributed equally to this article.

Page created: December 18, 2020
Page updated: February 21, 2021
Page reviewed: February 21, 2021
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
file_external