Abstract

The pandemic caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is a worldwide public health 22 concern. First confined in China, and then disseminated widely across Europe and America, 23 has impacted and moved the scientific community around the world to working in a fast and 24 coordinated way to collect all possible information about this virus and generate new 25 strategies and protocols to try to stop the infection. By now, more than 16,000 full viral 26 genomes have been shared in public databases, that allows to construct genetic landscapes to 27 try to track and monitoring the viral advances, and study the genomic variations presents in 28 geographic regions and track the progress of the virus over time. In this work we present the 29 occurrence of genetics variants and lineages of SARS-CoV-2 in Chile during March 2020. 30 Complete genome analysis of 141 viral samples from different regions of Chile, revealed a 31 predominance of variant G like in Europe and USA and the majority presence of lineage B.1. 32 These findings could help to take control measures due the similarity of the viral variants 33 present in Chile, compared with other countries, and the monitoring of the mutation rate of 34 the virus in the territory.