Apart from the potent suppression of interferon-mediated antiviral response, highly pathogenic HCoVs often induce massive cell death and cytopathy. Cell death is a double-edged sword that can play both antiviral and proviral roles during viral infection [68]. On the one hand, it is part of the host antiviral defence that provides a dead end to viral replication and infection, often at the price of pathological changes including inflammation [69]. On the other hand, dying and dead cells release a large number of virions, facilitating viral dissemination [70].