Using publicly available metatranscriptomic sequencing data made available at the pandemic onset, we had demonstrated the utility of a high throughput in silico method for characterizing the HLA types of COVID-19 patients from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and blood samples and reported on prevalent alleles, including the DPA1*02:02P - DPB1*05:01P HLA-II haplotype observed in seven out of eight of patients from two small cohorts (Warren & Birol, 2020a). This evidence concerns the gene HLA-DPA1 and COVID-19.