After removing 17 of 28 laboratory indicators with missing values more than 20% of the sample size, the results of initial Kaplan–Meier survival analysis (Fig. 1C–D) and parameter or nonparametric tests (Fig. 1E) revealed that only five indicators (serum CEA, lymphocytes, neutrophils, CRP and albumin) were significantly associated with both the imaging score and prognosis of COVID-19 patients (Fig. 1B). Here, CRP is linked to COVID-19.