Li J, Liao X, Zhou Y, et al. - COVID-19 patients taking high doses or medium doses of glucocorticoids showed delay in viral clearance, whereas those taking low doses did not.

• From Medline, Embase, EBSCO, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov, researchers identified a total of 38 studies with a total of 9,572 patients for inclusion.

• Moderate-quality evidence suggested delayed viral clearance in COVID-19 patients in correlation with receiving glucocorticoids treatment.

• Subgroup analyses revealed significant risk of viral clearance delay both for COVID-19 patients being mild or moderate ill, and for patients of being severe or critical ill.

• The risk appeared significantly increased for patients taking high doses or medium doses.