Origin of inbound transmission lineages of COVID-19 in the UK 2020

Between January and May 2020, it was estimated by the COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium that the coronavirus was brought into the United Kingdom on at least 1,356 different occasions. These importations each started a chain of transmission as the virus spread throughout the UK. In approximately 34 percent of cases, the start of the transmission line was attributable to inbound travel from Spain, followed by 28.5 percent virus introductions from Italy. Fewer than 0.1 percent of chains of transmission arrived directly from China, where the coronavirus originated.

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