A novel coronavirus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2) had caused 4,761,559 confirmed cases and 317,529 confirmed deaths worldwide, as of May 20, 2020 ( https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 ). Many of the symptoms caused by SARS-CoV-2 are similar to those caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), especially acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (Li et al., 2020a). Previous studies have reported that ARDS is the primary cause of mortality and morbidity in intensive care units (ICUs) (Liu and Tan, 2020; Liu et al., 2020a, b).
