Correction to: Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04069-y Published online 14 October 2021

In the version of this article initially published, the name of author Erik Volz appeared as “Erik M. Volz” in The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium contributions listings. Further, the affiliation listed for COG-UK Consortium member Adam A. Witney was shown incorrectly (Imperial College London) and has been now amended to the Institute for Infection and Immunity, St George’s Hospital of London, London, UK. The changes have been made to the HTML and PDF versions of the article.