Detailed phylogenetic analysis tracks transmission of distinct SARS-COV-2 variants from China and Europe to West Africa

SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in December 2019 in China and raised fears it could overwhelm healthcare systems worldwide. Mutations of the virus are monitored by the GISAID database from which we downloaded sequences from four West African countries Ghana, Gambia, Senegal and Nigeria from February 2020 to April 2020. We subjected the sequences to phylogenetic analysis employing the nextstrain pipeline. We found country-specific patterns of viral variants and supplemented that with data on novel variants from June 2021. Until April 2020, variants carrying the crucial Europe-associated D614G amino acid change were predominantly found in Senegal and Gambia, and combinations of late variants with and early variants without D614G in Ghana and Nigeria. In June 2021 all variants carried the D614G amino acid substitution. Senegal and Gambia exhibited again variants transmitted from Europe (alpha or delta), Ghana a combination of several variants and in Nigeria the original Eta variant. Detailed analysis of distinct samples revealed that some might have circulated latently and some reflect migration routes. The distinct patterns of variants within the West African countries point at their global transmission via air traffic predominantly from Europe and only limited transmission between the West African countries.