Role of Mathematical Models in COVID-19 Study

Abstract

COVID-19 is a new emerging contagious disease caused by a new novel virus, named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2). SARS-CoV-2 is regarded as the third zoonotic human coronavirus emerging in the current century, after SARS-CoV in 2002 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012 [1]. The virus was first reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China in December 2019.The disease is spreading between people globally and has so far claimed hundreds of lives across the globe. The no. of confirmed cases and deaths reported across the world as on 24 July 2020 were 15,257,287 and 628,240 [2]. The disease affects lungs and causes respiratory illness with symptoms like cold, cough, fever and in critical cases difficulty in breathing. In the early stages of such a contagious disease outbreak it is very critical to understand the transmission pattern of the infection. Studying the changes in the transmission pattern over time can provide better understanding of the epidemiological situation, which is very important to stop the spread the COVID-19 in new areas by timely deployment of countermeasures.