Unfinished Epidemic of Infectious Diseases
Molecular epidemiology of COVID-19 in Hong Kong
Professor Leo Poon
Professor and Head of Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences,
School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong
Biography
Professor Leo Poon received his doctoral training in Sir William Dunn School of Pathology in University of Oxford. He joined the University of Hong Kong in 2001. He currently serves as a Professor in the School of Public Health, HKU and also a co-director of HKU-Pasteur Research Pole. Professor Poon also serves as an expert in several international organisations, such as WHO, FAO and OIE.
​
Professor Poon is a molecular virologist and a public health scientist. He has strong interests on emerging viruses. He published over 300 peer-reviewed articles. He has been named as a top 1% most-cited scientist since 2005 and, an even more prestigious honour, as a Highly Cited Researcher since 2015. ​
​
His work primarily focuses on influenza virus and coronavirus. In 2003, Professor Poon involved in the discovery of SARS coronavirus. He is the first who decoded the first SARS coronavirus sequence. In the current COVID-19 pandemic, he is also one of the firsts who developed rapid diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2. His work led to several key discoveries about COVID-19 and helped to develop evidence-based control measures to control this disease.
Abstract
Hong Kong has employed a strategy of intermittent public health and social measures alongside increasingly stringent travel regulations to eliminate domestic SARS-CoV-2 transmission. There were five waves of COVID-19 in Hong Kong. We used next generation sequencing approach to conduct a molecular surveillance study and analyzed SARS-CoV-2 viral genomes detected in Hong Kong since the Jan-2020 to now. We revealed the effects of fluctuating control measures on the evolution and epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 lineages in Hong Kong. Our molecular surveillance revealed a vast number of SARS-CoV-2 variants from incoming travelers. Community outbreaks were caused by novel introductions rather than a resurgence of circulating strains. We also studied several key SARS-CoV-2 transmission events (e.g., reinfection, vaccine breakthrough infection) and several superspreading events. In addition, our sequencing work reveal zoonotic and reverse zoonotic transmission events of SARS-CoV-2. Overall, our results helped to identify major risk factors that facilitate COVID-19 transmission, identify sources of infection, design evidence-based control measures and evaluate the effectiveness of newly introduced interventions. These provided scientific underpinning to COVID-19 control strategies in Hong Kong.