More than 113,000 people have now been confirmed to have contracted coronavirus globally, while the death toll nears 4000.
But the rate of recovery is much higher, with around 62,000 people having overcome the virus.
Scientists at the University of Liverpool are tracing how Covid-19 is spreading person-to-person by looking at their genetic material and comparing it with others. They hope the work will help them understand what it is that makes some people significantly more ill than others.
"With that information we may then be able to understand the spread of disease better, which may help us control the outbreak in the long run," professor Tom Solomon from Health Protection Research Unit tells the BBC.
The genetic analysis being conducted is so precise, scientists can work out the chain of infection from one person to the next.
Through sequencing their genetic codes, scientists are also beginning to understand what it is that's making them ill.
From previous research from another coronavirus known as MERS, they know it is an accumulation of infections which can make the virus deadly.
"The technology we have been using in the lab allows us to take a sample from the patient, analyse that sample within hours and identify these really, really dangerous bacteria," says University of Liverpool professor Julian Hiscox.
Professor Hiscox says they can then share than information with other health officials who are then design the appropriate antibiotics to treat Covid-19.
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