Early Transmission Dynamics, Spread, and Genomic Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 in Panama.
Franco D., Gonzalez C., Abrego LE., Carrera J-P., Diaz Y., Caicedo Y., Moreno A., Chavarria O., Gondola J., Castillo M., Valdespino E., Gaitán M., Martínez-Mandiche J., Hayer L., Gonzalez P., Lange C., Molto Y., Mojica D., Ramos R., Mastelari M., Cerezo L., Moreno L., Donnelly CA., Pascale JM., Faria NR., Lopez-Verges S., Martinez AA., Gorgas COVID19 team and Panama COVID19 Laboratory Network .
We report an epidemiologic analysis of 4,210 cases of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and genetic analysis of 313 new near-complete virus genomes in Panama during March 9-April 16, 2020. Although containment measures reduced R0 and Rt, they did not interrupt virus spread in the country.