Scientists studying mutations in coronavirus have decoded more than 10,000 different genomes of the deadly pathogen, creating a comprehensive map that will be crucial to controlling the pandemic and developing medicines to treat it.

Since the first viral sample was analysed in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December, international research teams have used phylogenetics to create a vast genealogical tree of the Sars-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19, which reveals how it spread from the outbreak centre to all corners of the world in a short space of time.

“Genomic epidemiology will be a vital tool in humanity’s efforts to beat Covid-19 and return the world to normal,” said Emma Hodcroft, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Basel in Switzerland who is part of the Nextstrain mapping project. “For a start it will be instrumental for helping to distinguish between local and imported transmissions as we move out of lockdown.”