Clinical features, isolation, and complete genome sequence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 from the first two patients in Vietnam

Abstract

In January 2020, we identified two SARS‐CoV‐2 infections in a familial cluster with one person coming from Wuhan, China. The complete genome sequences of two SARS‐CoV‐2 strains isolated from these patients were identical and 99.98% similar to strains isolated in Wuhan. This is genetically suggestive of human‐to‐human transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 and indicates Wuhan as the most plausible origin of the early outbreak in Vietnam. The younger patient with a mild upper respiratory illness and a brief viral shedding, while the elderly with multi‐morbidity had pneumonia, prolonged viral shedding, and residual lung damage. Evidence of nonsynonymous substitutions in the ORF1ab region of the viral sequence warrants further studies.