SARS-CoV-2 spread across the Colombian-Venezuelan border

Abstract

Introduction Venezuela and Colombia both adopted measures of containment early in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Venezuela's ongoing humanitarian crisis has decimated its health care system, and forced millions of Venezuelans to flee through its porous border with Colombia. The extensive shared border, and illegal cross-border transit through improvised trails between the two countries are major challenges for public health authorities. We report the first SARS-CoV-2 genomes from Venezuela, and present a snapshot of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemiologic landscape in the Colombian-Venezuelan border region. Methods We sequenced and assembled viral genomes from total RNA extracted from nasopharyngeal (NP) clinical specimens using a custom reference-based analysis pipeline. Three assemblies obtained were subjected to typing using the Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak LINeages ‘Pangolin’ tool. A total of 376 publicly available SARS-CoV-2 genomes from South America were obtained from the GISAID database to perform comparative genomic analyses. Additionally, the Wuhan-1 strain was used as reference. Results We found that two of the SARS-CoV-2 genomes from Venezuela belonged to the B1 lineage, and the third to the B.1.13 lineage. We observed a point mutation in the Spike protein gene (D614G substitution), previously reported to be associated with increased infectivity, in all three Venezuelan genomes. An additional three mutations (R203K/G204R substitution) were present in the nucleocapsid (N) gene of one Venezuelan genome. Conclusions Genomic sequencing demonstrates similarity between SARS-CoV-2 lineages from Venezuela and viruses collected from patients in bordering areas in Colombia and from Brazil, consistent with cross-border transit despite administrative measures including lockdowns. The presence of mutations associated with increased infectivity in the 3 Venezuelan genomes we report and Colombian SARS-CoV-2 genomes from neighboring borders areas may pose additional challenges for control of SARS-CoV-2 spread in the complex epidemiological landscape in Latin American countries. Public health authorities should carefully follow the progress of the pandemic and its impact on displaced populations within the region.

Evolution and Epidemic Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Colombia: A Year into the Pandemic

“…In addition, our analyses on the geographic distribution of SARS-CoV-2 revealed significant heterogeneity, with some regions of Colombia being heavily affected, particularly after lifting restrictions on August 2020 ( Figure 2 and Supplementary Data S1 ). The most likely contributing factors influencing the high density of cases in these regions include links to travelers returning from other epidemic areas and implementation of ineffective intervention measures as well as poor social compliance [ 10 , 12 , 18 , 29 ]. Other causes include the highly porous nature of the borders with neighboring countries (Brazil and Peru)—favoring illegal migration—social inequality, and poor access to healthcare services [ 3 , 29 , 50 ].…”

“…This has precluded an accurate assessment on the impact of control strategies across wide settings throughout the pandemic period. On the other hand, genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Colombia has been restricted to a limited number of genomes sequenced to date (less than 1% of the total number of confirmed cases) [ 15 , 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”

Molecular Phylogenesis and Spatiotemporal Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Southeast Asia

“…However, the impact of the interregional importations of the virus seems to be relatively limited. Empirical evidence shows that compared with the long-distance spread across regions, SARS-CoV-2 is much easier to spread between neighboring countries over short distances (22,79,80). For Southeast Asia, international travel bans were announced at a very early stage of the pandemic (76,81), but movement restrictions within the region, the focus of this research, were relatively loose (81).…”

COVID-19: first long-term care facility outbreak in the Netherlands following cross-border introduction from Germany, March 2020

“…However, literature on cross-border spread of COVID-19 is scarce. One of the few studies reporting on cross-border regions with regards to COVID, reported cross-border transmission despite a lockdown of the country and imposing border restrictions [ 13 ]. A British study which analysed the transmission of COVID in bordering districts in England during the first COVID wave showed similar results.…”

“…Although cross-border measures are crucial to COVID-19 response [ 11 , 12 ], to our knowledge, only few studies have been published about COVID-19 transmission and challenges in border regions. One of these studies assessed cross-border transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the border regions of Venezuela with Colombia and Brazil, and reported similar genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 despite measures in place to limit mobility, including a lockdown [ 13 ]. A recently published British study attributed pre-crisis commute to work between districts as a major cause for SARS-CoV-2 spread during the first wave of the pandemic [ 14 ], which is a scenario with similar conditions compared to the present study.…”