Corticosteroids are widely used to prevent lung injury caused by severe community-acquired pneumonia (sCAP) due to their excellent pharmacological effects on the suppression of exuberant and dysfunctional systematic inflammation5. Some scholars may not support the corticosteroids treatment for novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), because observational studies and systematic reviews have indicated inconclusive clinical evidence on the effect of corticosteroids therapy for viral pneumonias (such as SARS, MERS and H1N1). Additionally, pulse-dose therapy or long-term administration to high dose of corticosteroids in early stage were reported to be possibly harmful6–8. However, these conclusions obscured the clinical benefits of corticosteroids on some subgroups of patients, particularly those with severe symptoms, as the clinical effects might be related to the indication (severities of illness), the timing of intervention, the dose and duration of corticosteroids therapy9.