Importation, circulation, and emergence of variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the South Indian state of Karnataka

Background: As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues, the selection of genomic variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) associated with higher transmission, more severe disease, re-infection, and immune escape are a cause for concern. Such variants have been reported from the UK (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and, Brazil (P.1/B.1.1.28). We performed this study to track the importation, spread, and emergence of variants locally.