• Tsuyoshi Sekizuka, Kentaro Itokawa, Tsutomu Kageyama, Shinji Saito, Ikuyo Takayama, Hideki Asanuma, Naganori Nao, Rina Tanaka, Masanori Hashino, Takuri Takahashi, Hajime Kamiya, Takuya Yamagishi, Kensaku Kakimoto, Motoi Suzuki, Hideki Hasegawa, Takaji Wakita, and Makoto Kuroda.
• Pathogen Genomics Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 162-8640 Tokyo, Japan.
• Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2020 Aug 18; 117 (33): 20198-20201.

AbstractThe Diamond Princess cruise ship was put under quarantine offshore Yokohama, Japan, after a passenger who disembarked in Hong Kong was confirmed as a coronavirus disease 2019 case. We performed whole-genome sequencing of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) directly from PCR+ clinical specimens and conducted a phylogenetic analysis of the outbreak. All tested isolates exhibited a transversion at G11083T, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 dissemination on the Diamond Princess originated from a single introduction event before the quarantine started. Although further spreading might have been prevented by quarantine, some progeny clusters could be linked to transmission through mass-gathering events in the recreational areas and direct transmission among passengers who shared cabins during the quarantine. This study demonstrates the usefulness of haplotype network/phylogeny analysis in identifying potential infection routes.Copyright © 2020 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

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