A Rutgers engineer has created a mathematical model that accurately estimates the death toll linked to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and could be used around the world. [45] Researchers in Brazil analyzed the growth of confirmed infected COVID-19 cases across four continents to better characterize the spread of the virus and examine which strategies are effective in reducing its spread. [44] A system that checks from a safe distance whether someone is displaying symptoms of COVID-19 has been developed by Urs Schneider and colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation in Stuttgart, Germany. [43] Although the test still needs to be tested on intact viral RNA from patient samples, it could help relieve the current pressure on PCR-based tests, the researchers say. [42] Simon Fraser University researchers will use their pioneering imaging technology-called Mango, for its bright colour-to develop coronavirus testing kits. [41] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, common human coronaviruses usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses, like the common cold. [40] When diseases reinforce each other, they rapidly accelerate through the population, then fizzle out as they run out of new hosts. [39] It's no coincidence that some of the worst viral disease outbreaks in recent years-SARS, MERS, Ebola, Marburg and likely the newly arrived 2019-nCoV virus-originated in bats. [38] An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Colorado State University has used computational chemistry, biochemistry and virology to uncover new information on how viruses such as West Nile, dengue and Zika replicate. [37]