Figure 1
From: Differential responses of SARS-CoV-2 variants to environmental drivers during their selective sweeps
Spatial transmission dynamics during variant selective sweeps. (a) Population density map of England; transmission is expected to be higher where there is greater population density4,5,6. (b, c and d) Spatial dynamics of Alpha, Delta and Omicron spread respectively; plots show the proportion of positive cases identified as the spreading variant. Alpha’s spread in England began in the South–East (hence its early denotation as the “Kent variant”19), Delta first became the dominant strain in the South–West, whereas Omicron first became dominant in London and the North–West. Notably, the Omicron variant first dominated many of the most population dense areas. Cornwall (grey) was omitted from our analyses as this region generally had too few deaths for accurate \(R_t\) estimates. Maps produced in R, version 4.1.220, based on geometry for the UK National Health Service’s “Sustainability and Transformation Plan” regions (STPs) obtained from the Office for National Statistics21.
