While cases in G2–4 shared changes with other viral infections such as influenza, chikungunya, or Zika, mainly including interferon signature genes (IFI16, IFI35, IFIT1, maroon module), partial overlap to bacterial sepsis was observed for G1–G3, albeit the major sepsis module (pink) was not prominently enriched in COVID-19 patients indicating that there are distinct differences in pathology of these two diseases. Here, IFI16 is linked to COVID-19.