The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a serious global health threat. Multiple antiviral or immunomodulatory therapies have failed to show any mortality benefit for patients with COVID-19. Dexamethasone was shown in prior studies to improve mortality and ventilator free days. However, it is unclear what dose of dexamethasone is most beneficial in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. This randomized single center open label clinical trial is to evaluate two different doses of dexamethasone (20mg vs. 6mg) on the health outcome for hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The intervention arm is dexamethasone 20mg daily for 5 days, followed by dexamethasone 10mg daily for 5 days. The comparator is dexamethasone 6mg daily for 10 days. Three hundred participants will be enrolled. The primary outcome is clinical improvement using World Health Organization ordinal scale at day 28.
