Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and the consequent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are spreading all over the world, with human, economic and health consequences that are, at present (April 12th, 2020), still difficult to fully predict. The Chinese Centre for Disease Control recently published data on 44,672 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 [1], showing that 88% of patients were < 70 years old, with an overall mortality rate of 2%, but 19% of cases needed hospitalisation in an intensive care unit (ICU). In a Chinese cohort of 191 adult COVID-19 patients who required hospitalisation [2], 61% needed ICU treatment, with a mean length of stay of 3 weeks.