not able to setup on python2.7

[FirstHandScientist]

Anyone successfully setup on ubuntu 16.04?
After creating a virtual environment by
$ virtualenv -p python2.7 venv
activate it and run
$ python setup install
The python 2.7 setup gives error:
...site-packages/setuptools/sandbox.py", line 45, in _execfile
exec(code, globals, locals)
File "/tmp/easy_install-EL_eGV/numpy-1.17.2/setup.py", line 31, in
pass
RuntimeError: Python version >= 3.5 required.

Any suggestions to resolve this would be appreciated.

Best,
Dong