Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, can reduce the number of bacterial species in a patient's gut, with the lesser diversity creating space for dangerous microbes to thrive, a new study has found.

According to the study, results showed that the majority of patients had low gut microbiome diversity, with a full quarter dominated by a single type of bacteria.

At the same time, populations of several microbes known to include antibiotic-resistant species increased, possible due to widespread antibiotic use early in the pandemic, the study said.

Further, the antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in the gut were observed to have migrated into the bloodstream in 20 per cent of the patients.