Rapid Emergence and Epidemiologic Characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.526 Variant — New York City, New York, January 1–April 5, 2021
Open accessAbstract
Recent studies have documented the emergence and rapid growth of B.1.526, a novel variant of interest (VOI) of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the New York City (NYC) area after its identification in NYC in November 2020 (1-3). Two predominant subclades within the B.1.526 lineage have been identified, one containing the E484K mutation in the receptor-binding domain (1,2), which attenuates in vitro neutralization by multiple SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and is present in variants of concern (VOCs) first identified in South Africa (B.1.351) (4) and Brazil (P.1).* The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) analyzed laboratory and epidemiologic data to characterize cases of B.1.526 infection, including illness severity, transmission to close contacts, rates of possible reinfection, and laboratory-diagnosed breakthrough infections among vaccinated persons. Preliminary data suggest that the B.1.526 variant does not lead to more severe disease and is not associated with increased risk for infection after vaccination (breakthrough infection) or reinfection. Because relatively few specimens were sequenced over the study period, the statistical power might have been insufficient to detect modest differences in rates of uncommon outcomes such as breakthrough infection or reinfection. Collection of timely viral genomic data for a larger proportion of citywide cases and rapid integration with population-based surveillance data would enable improved understanding of the impact of emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and specific mutations to help guide public health intervention efforts.
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Reports from California, New York, and Massachusetts showed that the distribution of variants of concern in breakthrough infections was similar to that in the general unvaccinated population.
“This finding is in line with reports from California, New York, and Massachusetts23-25 showing that the distribution of variants of concern in breakthrough infections was similar to that in the general unvaccinated population.”
From Covid-19 Breakthrough Infections in Vaccinated Health Care Workers (2021) · cites this paper as [24]
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Cites
Detection of a SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern in South Africa
Tegally, H., Wilkinson, E., Giovanetti, M., Iranzadeh, A., Fonseca, V., Giandhari, J., Doolabh, D., Pillay, S., San, E. J., Msomi, N., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03402-9 · Cited by 2,510 · see citing works
Assessing transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 in England
The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, Volz, E., Mishra, S., Chand, M., Barrett, J. C., Johnson, R., Geidelberg, L., Hinsley, W. R., Laydon, D. J., Dabrera, G., et al. (2021) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03470-x · Cited by 1,611 · see citing works
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Challen, R., Brooks-Pollock, E., Read, J. M., Dyson, L., Tsaneva-Atanasova, K., & Danon, L. (2021) · BMJ · doi:10.1136/bmj.n579 · Cited by 776 · cited 2× · see citing works
“7 infections using these methods, which is consistent with evidence that this variant has increased virulence (8).”
BackgroundMethodCOVID-19 Outbreak — New York City, February 29–June 1, 2020
Thompson, C. N., Baumgartner, J., Pichardo, C., Toro, B., Li, L., Arciuolo, R. J., Chan, P. Y., Chen, J., Culp, G. M., Davidson, A., et al. (2020) · MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report · doi:10.15585/mmwr.mm6946a2 · Cited by 323 · see citing works
Self-citationFreed, N. E., Vlková, M., Faisal, M., & Silander, O. (2020) · Biology Methods and Protocols · doi:10.1093/biomethods/bpaa014 · Cited by 268 · see citing works
Detection and characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.526 in New YorkPreprint
West, A. P., Wertheim, J. O., Wang, J. C., Vasylyeva, T. I., Havens, J. L., Chowdhury, M. A., Gonzalez, E., Fang, C. E., Lonardo, S. S. D., Hughes, S., et al. (2021) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2021.02.14.431043 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Self-citationThe localized rise of a B.1.526 SARS-CoV-2 variant containing an E484K mutation in New York StatePreprint
Lasek‐Nesselquist, E., Lapierre, P., Schneider, E., George, K. S., & Pata, J. D. (2021) · medRxiv · doi:10.1101/2021.02.26.21251868 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Emergence and Expansion of the SARS-CoV-2 Variant B.1.526 Identified in New York
Annavajhala, M. K., Mohri, H., Wang, P., Nair, M., Zucker, J. E., Sheng, Z., Gomez-Simmonds, A., Kelley, A. L., Tagliavia, M., Huang, Y., et al. (2021) · doi:10.1101/2021.02.23.21252259 · cited 2×
“526 variants identified were found to have the E484K mutation, which has been shown to attenuate antibody neutralization in vitro (3).”
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Covid-19 Breakthrough Infections in Vaccinated Health Care Workers
Bergwerk, M., Gonen, T., Lustig, Y., Amit, S., Lipsitch, M., Cohen, C., Mandelboim, M., Levin, E. G., Rubin, C., Indenbaum, V., et al. (2021) · New England Journal of Medicine · doi:10.1056/nejmoa2109072 · Cited by 1,345 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Thompson, C. N., Hughes, S., Ngai, S., Baumgartner, J., Wang, J. C., McGibbon, E., Devinney, K., Luoma, E., Bertolino, D., Hwang, C., Kepler, K., Del Castillo, C., Hopkins, M., Lee, H., DeVito, A. K., Rakeman, J. L., PhD1, & Fine, A. D.
- Affiliations
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (US)
- Corresponding author
- Thompson, Corinne N.
- ORCID
- Venue
- MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
- Published
- 2021-05-14
- Volume
- 70
- Issue
- 19
- Pages
- 712-716
- ISSN
- 0149-2195 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-861X
- PMC
- PMC8118150
- OpenAlex
- W3159320236
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 24
- FWCI
- 3.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Locations
- MMWR Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
- Johns Hopkins University (COVID-19)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Keywords
- SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 pandemic, E484K mutation, breakthrough infection, reinfection, disease severity, close contact transmission, COVID-19 vaccination, New York City
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Testing, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Male, Middle Aged, New York City, Young Adult
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