Scientists map coronavirus path with computer models

Scientists at work in the VirPath university laboratory, classified as 'P3' level of safety, as they try to find an effective treatment against the new Covid-19 coronavirus. Despite an inevitable margin of error, scientists are now able to predict the path the novel coronavirus, which has already killed nearly 1,400 people, will take. — AFP

PARIS: As the novel coronavirus spreads around the world, scientists are using the latest computer modelling techniques to predict its fallout: from the eventual number of cases and deaths to the peak of the outbreak.

Recent decades have seen the power of new computer processors combine with ever-more sophisticated mathematical models to give health authorities a far better idea of how far and fast diseases are likely to spread.