Spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020.

Following its emergence in late 2019, the spread of SARS-CoV-21,2 has been tracked by phylogenetic analysis of viral genome sequences in unprecedented detail3–5. Although the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced. However, travel within Europe resumed in the summer of 2020. Here we report on a SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20E (EU1), that was identified in Spain in early summer 2020 and subsequently spread across Europe. We find no evidence that this variant has increased transmissibility, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions, we estimate that 20E (EU1) was introduced hundreds of times to European countries by summertime travellers, which is likely to have undermined local efforts to minimize infection with SARS-CoV-2. Our results illustrate how a variant can rapidly become dominant even in the absence of a substantial transmission advantage in favourable epidemiological settings. Genomic surveillance is critical for understanding how travel can affect transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited

Spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020

[EN] Following its emergence in late 2019, the spread of SARS-CoV-21,2 has been tracked by phylogenetic analysis of viral genome sequences in unprecedented detail3,4,5. Although the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced. However, travel within Europe resumed in the summer of 2020. Here we report on a SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20E (EU1), that was identified in Spain in early summer 2020 and subsequently spread across Europe. We find no evidence that this variant has increased transmissibility, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions, we estimate that 20E (EU1) was introduced hundreds of times to European countries by summertime travellers, which is likely to have undermined local efforts to minimize infection with SARS-CoV-2. Our results illustrate how a variant can rapidly become dominant even in the absence of a substantial transmission advantage in favourable epidemiological settings. Genomic surveillance is critical for understanding how travel can affect transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes.S

The first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in Spain was associated with early introductions and fast spread of a dominating genetic variant

SeqCOVID-Spain consortium: Álvaro Chiner-Oms, Irving Cancino-Muñoz, Mariana G. López, Manuela Torres-Puente, Inmaculada Gómez-Navarro, Santiago Jiménez-Serrano, Jordi Pérez-Tur, Darío García de Viedma, Laura Pérez-Lago, Marta Herranz, Jon Sicilia, Pilar Catalán-Alonso, Julia Suárez González, Patricia Muñoz, Mireia Coscolla, Paula Ruiz-Rodríguez, Fernando González-Candelas, Iñaki Comas, Lidia Ruiz-Roldán, María Alma Bracho, Neris García-González, Llúcia Martínez Priego, Inmaculada Galán-Vendrell, Paula Ruiz-Hueso, Griselda De Marco, María Loreto Ferrús-Abad, Sandra Carbó-Ramírez, Giuseppe D’Auria, Galo Adrian Goig, Juan Alberola, Jose Miguel Nogueira, Juan José Camarena, David Navarro, Eliseo Albert, Ignacio Torres, Maitane Aranzamendi Zaldumbide, Óscar Martínez Expósito, Nerea Antona Urieta, María de Toro, María Pilar Bea-Escudero, Jose Antonio Boga, Cristian Castelló-Abietar, Susana Rojo-Alba, Marta Elena Álvarez-Argüelles, Santiago Melón, Elisa Martró, Antoni E. Bordoy, Anna Not, Adrián Antuori, Anabel Fernández-Navarro, Andrés Canut-Blasco, Silvia Hernáez Crespo, Maria Luz Cordón Rodríguez, Maria Concepción Lecaroz Agara, Carmen Gómez-González, Amaia Aguirre-Quiñonero, José Israel López-Mirones, Marina Fernández-Torres, Maria Rosario Almela-Ferrer, Ana Carvajal, Juan Miguel Fregeneda-Grandes, Héctor Argüello, Gustavo Cilla Eguiluz, Milagrosa Montes Ros, Luis Piñeiro Vázquez, Ane Sorarrain, José María Marimón, José J. Costa-Alcalde, Rocío Trastoy, Gema Barbeito Castiñeiras, Amparo Coira, María Luisa Pérez del Molino, Antonio Aguilera, Begoña Palop-Borrás, Inmaculada de Toro Peinado, Maria Concepción Mediavilla Gradolph, Mercedes Pérez-Ruiz, Mirian Fernández-Alonso, Jose Luis del Pozo, Oscar González-Recio, Mónica Gutiérrez-Rivas, Jovita Fernández-Pinero, Miguel Ángel Jiménez Clavero, Begoña Fuster Escrivá, Concepción Gimeno Cardona, María Dolores Ocete Mochón, Rafael Medina-Gonzalez, José Antonio Lepe, Verónica González Galán, Ángel Rodríguez-Villodres, Nieves Gonzalo Jiménez, Jordi Reina, Carla López-Causapé, Maria Dolores Gómez-Ruiz, Eva M. Gonzalez-Barbera, José Luis López-Hontangas, Vicente Martín, Antonio J. Molina, Tania Fernandez-Villa, Ana Milagro Beamonte, Nieves Felisa Martínez-Cameo, Yolanda Gracia-Grataloup, Rosario Moreno-Muñoz, Maria Dolores Tirado Balaguer, José María Navarro-Marí, Irene Pedrosa-Corral, Sara Sanbonmatsu-Gámez, Antonio Oliver, Mónica Parra Grande, Bárbara Gómez Alonso, Francisco José Arjona Zaragozí, Maria Carmen Pérez González, Francisco Javier Chamizo López, Ana Bordes-Benítez, Núria Rabella, Ferran Navarro, Elisenda Miró, Antonio Rezusta, Alexander Tristancho, Encarnación Simarro Córdoba, Julia Lozano-Serra, Lorena Robles Fonseca, Álex Soriano, Francisco Javier Roig Sena, Hermelinda Vanaclocha Luna, Isabel Sanmartín, Daniel García-Souto, Ana Pequeño-Valtierra, Jose M. C. Tubio, Javier Temes, Jorge Rodríguez-Castro, Martín Santamarina García, Manuel Rodríguez-Iglesias, Fátima Galán-Sanchez, Salud Rodríguez-Pallares, José Manuel Azcona-Gutiérrez, Miriam Blasco-Alberdi, Alfredo Mayor, Alberto L. García-Basteiro, Gemma Moncunill, Carlota Dobaño, Pau Cisteró, Oriol Mitjà, Camila González-Beiras, Martí Vall-Mayans, Marc Corbacho-Monné, Andrea Alemany, Cristina Muñoz-Cuevas, Guadalupe Rodríguez-Rodríguez, Rafael Benito, Sonia Algarate, Jessica Bueno, Andrea Vergara-Gómez, Miguel J. Martínez, Jordi Vila, Elisa Rubio, Aida Peiró-Mestres, Jessica Navero-Castillejos, David Posada, Diana Valverde, Nuria Estévez, Iria Fernández-Silva, Loretta de Chiara, Pilar Gallego-García, Nair Varela, Ulises Gómez-Pinedo, Mónica Gozalo-Margüello, Maria Eliecer Cano García, José Manuel Méndez-Legaza, Jesus Rodríguez-Lozano, María Siller, Daniel Pablo-Marcos, Maria Montserrat Ruiz-García, Antonio Galiana, Judith Sánchez-Almendro, Maria Isabel Gascón Ros, Cristina Juana Torregrosa-Hetland, Eva María Pastor Boix, Paloma Cascales Ramos, Pedro Luis Garcinuño Enríquez, Salvador Raga Borja, Julia González Cantó, Olalla Martínez Macias, Adolfo de Salazar, Laura Viñuela González, Natalia Chueca, Federico García, Cristina Gómez-Camarasa, Amparo Farga Martí, Rocío Falcón, Victoria Domínguez-Márquez, Anna M. Planas, Israel Fernández-Cádenas, Maria Ángeles Marcos, Carmen Ezpeleta, Ana Navascués, Ana Miqueleiz Zapatero, Manuel Segovia, Antonio Moreno-Docón, Esther Viedma, Raúl Recio Martínez, Irene Muñoz-Gallego, Sara Gonzalez-Bodi, Maria Dolores Folgueira, Jesús Mingorance, Elias Dahdouh, Fernando Lázaro-Perona, María Rodríguez-Tejedor, María Pilar Romero-Gómez, Julio García-Rodríguez, Juan Carlos Galán, Mario Rodríguez-Dominguez, Laura Martínez-García, Melanie Abreu Di Berardino, Manuel Ponce-Alonso, Jose Maria González-Alba, Ivan Sanz-Muñoz, Diana Pérez San José, Maria Gil Fortuño, Juan B. Bellido-Blasco, Alberto Yagüe Muñoz, Noelia Hernández Pérez, Helena Buj Jordá, Óscar Pérez Olaso, Alejandro González Praetorius, Nora Mariela Martínez Ramírez, Aida Ramírez Marinero, Eduardo Padilla León, Alba Vilas Basil, Mireia Canal Aranda, Albert Bernet Sánchez, Alba Bellés Bellés, Eric López González, Iván Prats Sánchez, Mercè García-González, Miguel José Martínez-Lirola, Manuel Ángel Rodríguez Maresca, Maria Teresa Cabezas Fernández, María Eugenia Carrillo Gil, Maria Paz Ventero Martín, Carmen Molina Pardines, Nieves Orta Mira, María Navarro Cots, Inmaculada Vidal Catalá, Isabel García Nava, Soledad Illescas Fernández-Bermejo, José Martínez-Alarcón, Marta Torres-Narbona, Cristina Colmenarejo, Lidia García-Agudo, Jorge A. Pérez García, Martín Yago López, María Ángeles Goberna Bravo, Victoria Simón García, Gonzalo Llop Furquet, Agustín Iranzo Tatay, Sandra Moreno-Marro, Noelia Lozano Rodríguez, Amparo Broseta Tamarit, Juan José Badiola Díez, Amparo Martínez-Ramírez, Ana Dopazo, Sergio Callejas, Alberto Benguría, Begoña Aguado, Antonio Alcamí, Marta Bermejo Bermejo, Ricardo Ramos-Ruíz, Víctor Manuel Fernández Soria, Fernando Simón Soria & Mercedes Roig CardellsThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected the world radically since 2020. Spain was one of the European countries with the highest incidence during the first wave. As a part of a consortium to monitor and study the evolution of the epidemic, we sequenced 2,170 samples, diagnosed mostly before lockdown measures. Here, we identified at least 500 introductions from multiple international sources and documented the early rise of two dominant Spanish epidemic clades (SECs), probably amplified by superspreading events. Both SECs were related closely to the initial Asian variants of SARS-CoV-2 and spread widely across Spain. We inferred a substantial reduction in the effective reproductive number of both SECs due to public-health interventions (Re < 1), also reflected in the replacement of SECs by a new variant over the summer of 2020. In summary, we reveal a notable difference in the initial genetic makeup of SARS-CoV-2 in Spain compared with other European countries and show evidence to support the effectiveness of lockdown measures in controlling virus spread, even for the most successful genetic variants.This work was mainly funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III project COV20/00140, with additional funding by Spanish National Research Council project CSIC-COV19-021, Ministerio de Ciencia project PID2019-104477RB-100, ERC StG 638553 and ERC CoG 101001038 to I.C., and BFU2017-89594R to F.G.C. M.C. is supported by Ramón y Cajal program from Ministerio de Ciencia and grants RTI2018-094399-A-I00 and Generalitat Valenciana (Regional Government) project SEJI/2019/011. We gratefully acknowledge Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Lab and all the international researchers and institutions that submitted sequenced SARS-CoV-2 genomes to the GISAID’s EpiCov Database (Supplementary Table 1), as an important part of our analyses has been made possible by the sharing of their work. We also thank Unidad de Bioinformática y Estadística, Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe, for allowing us to use the Computer Cluster to perform some of the bioinformatic analysis.Peer reviewe

CARB-ES-19 Multicenter Study of Carbapenemase-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli From All Spanish Provinces Reveals Interregional Spread of High-Risk Clones Such as ST307/OXA-48 and ST512/KPC-3

ObjectivesCARB-ES-19 is a comprehensive, multicenter, nationwide study integrating whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in the surveillance of carbapenemase-producing K. pneumoniae (CP-Kpn) and E. coli (CP-Eco) to determine their incidence, geographical distribution, phylogeny, and resistance mechanisms in Spain.MethodsIn total, 71 hospitals, representing all 50 Spanish provinces, collected the first 10 isolates per hospital (February to May 2019); CPE isolates were first identified according to EUCAST (meropenem MIC &gt; 0.12 mg/L with immunochromatography, colorimetric tests, carbapenem inactivation, or carbapenem hydrolysis with MALDI-TOF). Prevalence and incidence were calculated according to population denominators. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed using the microdilution method (EUCAST). All 403 isolates collected were sequenced for high-resolution single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing, core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST), and resistome analysis.ResultsIn total, 377 (93.5%) CP-Kpn and 26 (6.5%) CP-Eco isolates were collected from 62 (87.3%) hospitals in 46 (92%) provinces. CP-Kpn was more prevalent in the blood (5.8%, 50/853) than in the urine (1.4%, 201/14,464). The cumulative incidence for both CP-Kpn and CP-Eco was 0.05 per 100 admitted patients. The main carbapenemase genes identified in CP-Kpn were blaOXA–48 (263/377), blaKPC–3 (62/377), blaVIM–1 (28/377), and blaNDM–1 (12/377). All isolates were susceptible to at least two antibiotics. Interregional dissemination of eight high-risk CP-Kpn clones was detected, mainly ST307/OXA-48 (16.4%), ST11/OXA-48 (16.4%), and ST512-ST258/KPC (13.8%). ST512/KPC and ST15/OXA-48 were the most frequent bacteremia-causative clones. The average number of acquired resistance genes was higher in CP-Kpn (7.9) than in CP-Eco (5.5).ConclusionThis study serves as a first step toward WGS integration in the surveillance of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales in Spain. We detected important epidemiological changes, including increased CP-Kpn and CP-Eco prevalence and incidence compared to previous studies, wide interregional dissemination, and increased dissemination of high-risk clones, such as ST307/OXA-48 and ST512/KPC-3

The Profitability of Environmental Proactivity in Business Education Institutions: An Investigation of University Administrators

Over the last decades, the implementation of an environmentally-proactive behavior has taken on a new priority as part of the environmental planning strategies at higher education institutions. Nonetheless, this trend has exerted a heterogeneous impact on business education centres. Moreover, prior studies have found that administrators’ efforts play a crucial role to foster a school climate supportive of environmental proactivity. This paper contributes to investigate how and why universities, i.e., organizations not guided primarily by financial profits, decide to undertake an environmentally-proactive behavior. Specifically, we analyse deans’ perceptions in relation to the economic advantages that may be derived out of different levels of environmental proactivity of the centres. To that aim, we draw on a sample of 74 deans. Contrary to our original expectations, results reveal that there are no significant differences in deans’ perceptions of the economic advantages from their centres’ environmental proactivity

The Profitability of Environmental Proactivity in Business Education Institutions: An Investigation of University Administrators

Over the last decades, the implementation of an environmentally-proactive behavior has taken on a new priority as part of the environmental planning strategies at higher education institutions. Nonetheless, this trend has exerted a heterogeneous impact on business education centres. Moreover, prior studies have found that administrators’ efforts play a crucial role to foster a school climate supportive of environmental proactivity. This paper contributes to investigate how and why universities, i.e., organizations not guided primarily by financial profits, decide to undertake an environmentally-proactive behavior. Specifically, we analyse deans’ perceptions in relation to the economic advantages that may be derived out of different levels of environmental proactivity of the centres. To that aim, we draw on a sample of 74 deans. Contrary to our original expectations, results reveal that there are no significant differences in deans’ perceptions of the economic advantages from their centres’ environmental proactivity

Differentiating the Effects of the Institutional Environment on Corporate Entrepreneurship

Purpose The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of how different dimensions of the institutional environment of a region may influence the level of corporate entrepreneurship of firms. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops the relationship between the institutional environment, differentiated in regulatory, cognitive and normative dimensions, and entrepreneurship in existing firms, corporate entrepreneurship, via a questionnaire study covering 150 firms in Spain. Findings The relation between institutional environment and corporate entrepreneurship can be distinct. The results show that both the normative and cognitive dimension of the institutional environment influence an organisation's entrepreneurial orientation. They also show that regulatory dimension influences what type of corporate entrepreneurial activity is carried out. Originality/value Literature about institutional theory and entrepreneurship has been both descriptive and fragmented. This paper complements the increasing interest in the analysis of the influence of institutional frameworks on corporate entrepreneurship and answers recent calls in the literature to complete previous analyses in an empirical way that supports previous works.</p