key: cord-0955425-ylkzeib2
authors: Tan, Zhaolin; Chen, Zhixiao; Yu, Aiping; Li, Xiaoyan; Feng, Yenan; Zhao, Xiang; Xu, Wenbo; Su, Xu
title: The First Two Imported Cases of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant — Tianjin Municipality, China, December 13, 2021
date: 2022-01-28
journal: China CDC Wkly
DOI: 10.46234/ccdcw2021.266
sha: 039ae4444270fbd60c57bf18b9c17ee0c913fa56
doc_id: 955425
cord_uid: ylkzeib2

On December 9, 2021, 2 international passengers arrived in Tianjin Binhai International Airport from Warsaw, Poland via airplane and tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), using nucleic acid tests. The first case (Patient A) was a flight crew member, a 35-year-old male, who had returned to Warsaw with the same flight on December 10, 2021. The second case (Patient B) was a 17-year-old female student, who has been transferred to Haihe Hospital for isolation. Both cases are Polish nationality that had recently lived in Warsaw, Poland. According to the investigation, neither patient had disease symptoms nor medication history. Patient B received the Pfizer/BNT162b2 vaccine on September 27, 2021. Patient A was vaccinated on May 25, 2021, but no further vaccine information was collected as Patient A had left China. No other infections from this flight have been detected.

On December 9, 2021, 2 international passengers arrived in Tianjin Binhai International Airport from Warsaw, Poland via airplane and tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease 2019 , using nucleic acid tests. (3).

A total of 40 amino acid mutation sites (A67V, T95I, Y145D, L212I, G339D, S371L, S373P, S375F, K417N, N440K, G446S, S477N, T478K, E484A, Q493R, G496S, Q498R, N501Y, Y505H, T547K, D614G, H655Y, N679K, P681H, A701V, N764K, D796Y, N856K, Q954H, N969K, L981F, H69del, V70del, G142del, V143del, Y144del, N211del, and 214insEPE) and at least 26 amino acid mutation sites (T19R, G142D, C361R, K424I, N439I, N440K, G446S, S477N, T478K, E484A, Q493R, G496S, F497Y, Q498R, N501Y, Y505H, N679K, P681H, A701V, N764K, D796Y, N856K, Q954H, N969K, L981F, and P1069S) were detected in the spike protein of the strains from Patient A and B, respectively. Some of the mutations in the receptor binding domain and near the furin cleavage were concerning and may be associated with immune escape potency and higher transmissibility (4).

Nowadays, Omicron is displaying a growth advantage over other circulating variants in many countries of the world (5) (6) . In addition, preliminary laboratory data have shown that Omicron displayed a reduction of immune protection against infection and vaccine (7). The strains from two cases in Tianjin were the first detected cases of the imported Omicron variant in the mainland of China and pose a great potential threat to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in China. The transmissibility, pathogenicity, and immune evasion of Omicron urgently needs to be further studied. doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2021.266 

A novel coronavirus genome identified in a cluster of pneumonia cases -Wuhan

A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China

Tracking of Variants

UK Health Security Agency.SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England:technical briefing 31 2021

The daily COVID-19 effective reproductive number (R) in South Africa

Plasma neutralization properties of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant

hCoV-19/France/OCC-SC571/2020|EPI ISL 663248|2020-05-26 hCoV-19/France/OCC-SC570/2020|EPI ISL 663247|2020-05-26 hCoV-19/France/OCC-SC569/2020|EPI ISL

3U0A4UCB/2021|EPI ISL 7509830|2021-11-26 hCoV-19/USA/AZ-ASU26315/2021|EPI ISL 7503377|2021-12-05 hCoV-19/USA/TX-HMH-MCoV-68741/2021|EPI ISL

/Brazil/AM-FIOCRUZ-21896339ECF/2021|EPI ISL 2777825|2021-03-19 hCoV-19/Brazil/AM-FIOCRUZ-21890984TSM/2021|EPI ISL

hCoV-19/Peru/LIM-INS-869/2020|EPI ISL 1534645|2020-11-30 hCoV-19/India/un-IRSHA-CD210871/2020|EPI ISL

Phylogenetic tree based on the full-length genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2. Notes: The Tianjin imported Omicron variant is marked with a green arrow. The three lineages of the Omicron variant (GISAID ID: EPI_ISL_7734647) and other seven distinguished SARS-CoV-2 variants are marked and colored on the right

The nucleotide sequence from Patient B is not included as its genomic sequence is incomplete. Abbreviations: SARS-CoV-2=severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; VOC=variant of concern