On Aug. 6, 2020, researchers at the AIDS Institute, Department of Microbiology and State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, LKS Faculty of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), in collaboration with clinicians at Queen Mary Hospital, Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital, conducted a study for determining the role of human immune responses in acute SARS-CoV-2 infection (within 3 weeks after infection) by investigating 17 acute and 24 convalescent COVID-19 patients as compared with healthy people in Hong Kong.

The study demonstrated that acute SARS-CoV-2 infection impairs dendritic cell and T cell function, allowing the virus to evade host innate and adaptive defences for more efficient transmission and severe clinical diseases. The full research article was published in one of worldﾒs leading journals Immunity.