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Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 positive passengers on flights from China to Italy, December 2022
- Federica Novazzi1,2,* , Emanuela Giombini3,* , Martina Rueca3 , Andreina Baj1,2 , Lavinia Fabeni3 , Angelo Genoni1,2 , Francesca Drago Ferrante2 , Giulia Gramigna3 , Cesare Ernesto Maria Gruber3 , Sara Boutahar2 , Claudia Minosse3 , Ornella Butera3 , Renee Pasciuta1 , Daniele Focosi4 , Alberto Colombo1 , Andrea Antinori3 , Enrico Girardi3 , Francesco Vaia3 , Fabrizio Maggi3
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1 Laboratory of Microbiology, ASST SetteLaghi, Varese, Italy 2 Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy 3 National Institute for Infectious Diseases “L. Spallanzani” - IRCCS, Rome, Italy 4 North-Western Tuscany Blood Bank, Pisa University Hospital, Pisa, Italy* These authors contributed equally to this work and share first authorship.Correspondence:Fabrizio Maggifabrizio.maggi inmi.it
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Citation style for this article: Novazzi Federica, Giombini Emanuela, Rueca Martina, Baj Andreina, Fabeni Lavinia, Genoni Angelo, Ferrante Francesca Drago, Gramigna Giulia, Gruber Cesare Ernesto Maria, Boutahar Sara, Minosse Claudia, Butera Ornella, Pasciuta Renee, Focosi Daniele, Colombo Alberto, Antinori Andrea, Girardi Enrico, Vaia Francesco, Maggi Fabrizio. Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 positive passengers on flights from China to Italy, December 2022. Euro Surveill. 2023;28(2):pii=2300008. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2023.28.2.2300008 Received: 05 Jan 2023; Accepted: 12 Jan 2023
Abstract
With numbers of COVID-19 cases having substantially increased at the end of 2022 in China, some countries have started or expanded testing and genomic surveillance of travellers. We report screening results in Italy in late December 2022 of 556 flight passengers in provenance from two Chinese provinces. Among these passengers, 126 (22.7%) tested SARS-CoV-2 positive. Whole genome sequencing of 61 passengers’ positive samples revealed Omicron variants, notably sub-lineages BA.5.2.48, BF.7.14 and BQ.1.1, in line with data released from China.
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