If we still had doubts about the speed of the spread of the coronavirus, the case of the Diamond Princess comes to remove them. A genetic analysis published on Tuesday reveals that a single person is probably at the origin of the 700 contaminations aboard the liner, one of the very first foci of the Covid-19 pandemic. He was quarantined for fourteen days by Japanese authorities on February 3 in the port of Yokohama, after an 80-year-old passenger tested positive.
The same virus mutation
In a study published in the American journal PNAS, a team from the Japanese Institute of Infectious Diseases reports having sequenced the genome of viruses taken from 148 of the ship's passengers and crew. It shows that the infected people, out of the 3,711 on board, shared the same mutation of the coronavirus. This suggests that "the spread of SARS-CoV-2 aboard the Diamond Princess originated from a single introductory event, before the start of quarantine". The contagions probably started during large gatherings in the common areas, "where passengers danced, sang, went shopping and attended shows".
This demonstrates, according to the authors of the study, the value of genetic surveys to understand the pathway of infections. Viruses are in fact constantly mutating by replicating themselves, which always makes it possible to reconstitute the equivalent of a family tree and to understand what precautions could have made it possible to reduce contagions.
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