Papers of the Week

Acute respiratory failure associated with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has rapidly spread worldwide and presents critical challenges for the public health and medical communities. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared SARS-CoV-2 a public health emergency of international concern, with a global estimate of over 7 million human infections and more than 400000 deaths worldwide as of June 12, 2020. A 2020 report by the China Medical Treatment Expert Group for Coronavirus disease 2010 (COVID-19) (2) showed that the clinical spectrum of the viral infection is dominated by fever (up to 88.7% of patients during hospitalization) and cough (67.8% of patients) followed by symptoms such as headache, fatigue, or shortness of breath.