Coronavirus: People with Type A blood face heightened risk - China report of infection

There are 8 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand - one in Christchurch, two in Waikato and another in Invercargill, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says.

A new study out of China has suggested people with a certain blood type may be more susceptible to the coronavirus.

People who have blood type A are more vulnerable to infection from the coronavirus, according to the report from the South China Morning Post. Conversely, people with blood type O have shown signs of being more resistant.

The preliminary study out of Wuhan University was published on March 11 on Medrxiv.org, and was conducted on 2000 patients who contracted the coronavirus in Wuhan and Shenzhen in China.

The researchers found type A patients presented a higher rate of infection, and tended to show more severe symptoms.

The research is in its preliminary stages and more work is needed, however the group reportedly urged governments and medical facilities to start taking people's blood types into account when treating patients diagnosed with Covid-19.

"People of blood group A might need particularly strengthened personal protection to reduce the chance of infection," the researchers, from Wang Xinghuan with the Centre for Evidence-Based and Translational Medicine at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University wrote.

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"Sars-CoV-2-infected patients with blood group A might need to receive more vigilant surveillance and aggressive treatment."

The study said their research suggested people with blood type O may have a "significantly lower risk" of infection than other blood types.

According to the study, of 206 patients who had been killed by the virus in Wuhan, 85 had type A blood, which is 63 per cent more than those with type O blood.

The team observed the blood type pattern across genders and different age groups.