Running title: Rhinovirus epidemiology in Hong Kong, 2020-2021
Shreya Gurung1,2, Kimberly M. Edwards1,2, Eunice Y. L. Chan4, Leo L. M. Poon1,2,3, So Lun Lee4, Susan S. Chiu4, Benjamin J. Cowling1,5, Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran1,2
1 School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2 HKU-Pasteur Research Pole, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
3 Centre for Immunology & Infection, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China
4 Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
5 Laboratory of Data Discovery for Health, Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China
* Correspondence should be addressed to: veej@hku.hk
Data Availability Sequences generated in this study are available in NCBI GenBank under accession numbers OR116985 – OR117139.
Funding The work described in this paper was partially supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. T11-712/19-N] and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (contract no. U01AI151810).
Conflict of Interest The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Ethical ApprovalThis study was approved by the joint Institutional Review Board of the University of Hong Kong and the Hospital Authority Hong Kong West Cluster Research Ethics Committee.
Patient Consent The need for written consent was waived because testing for respiratory pathogens is standard and routine for all children admitted for an acute respiratory infection.