SARS-CoV-2 Delta and Omicron Variants Surge in Curitiba, Southern Brazil, and Its Impact on Overall COVID-19 Lethality

Abstract

Screening efforts and genomic surveillance are essential tools to evaluate the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and assist the public healthcare system in dealing with an increasing number of infections. For the analysis of COVID-19 cases scenarios in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, we performed a diagnosis of positive cases, coupled with genotyping, for symptomatic and asymptomatic members of the Federal University of Paraná. We achieved over 1000 samples using RT-qPCR for diagnosis. The posterior genotyping allowed us to observe differences in the spread of strains in Curitiba, Brazil. The Delta variant was not associated with an infection wave, whereas the rapid Omicron variant spread became dominant in less than one month. We also evaluated the general vaccination coverage in the state, observing a striking reduction in lethality correlated to the vaccinated fraction of the population; although lower lethality rates were not much affected by the Omicron variant wave, the same effect was not translated in the number of infections. In summary, our results provide a general overview of the pandemic’s course in Paraná State and how there was reduction in lethality after a combination of multiple infection waves and a large-scale vaccination program.