From the Guidelines
The first Covid strain is known as SARS-CoV2, a bat-derived beta-coronavirus that was first identified in China in 2019 1. This strain, also referred to as the "Wuhan strain" or "wild type," emerged in Wuhan, China in late 2019 and was the version of the virus that initially spread worldwide, causing the global pandemic. Some key characteristics of SARS-CoV2 include:
- Its ability to cause respiratory symptoms that can lead to acute respiratory distress syndrome 1
- A cytokine storm has been shown in patients who develop fatal complications, as observed in past coronavirus infections 1
- The virus contains spike proteins that bind to ACE2 receptors on human cells, allowing it to enter and infect them 1 The original SARS-CoV2 strain established the reference genome against which all subsequent variants are compared. It's worth noting that this strain was already highly transmissible between humans through respiratory droplets and aerosols, which explains how it was able to spread globally so quickly before variants with even higher transmissibility emerged 1.
From the Research
COVID-19 Strains
- The first Covid strain is not explicitly mentioned in the provided studies 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
- However, study 5 mentions that COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which emerged in Wuhan, China.
- The study 5 also mentions that genomic analysis revealed that SARS-CoV-2 is phylogenetically related to severe acute respiratory syndrome-like (SARS-like) bat viruses.
Origin and Transmission
- Study 5 discusses the origin, transmission, and characteristics of human coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2.
- It mentions that the intermediate source of origin and transfer to humans is not known, however, the rapid human to human transfer has been confirmed widely 5.