Treating coronavirus patients with blood thinners may help in boosting their prospects for survival, according to preliminary findings from physicians at New York City's largest hospital system that offers another source of hope in treating the deadly infection.

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The Washington Post reported that the results of the analysis, conducted over 2,733 patients, were published on May 6 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. In an interview to the newspaper, Valentin Fuster, a physician in chief at Mount Sinai Hospital and one of the study's authors, said that the observations were based only on a review of medical records and that more rigorous and randomised studies are needed to draw broader conclusions. But the results have been promising, he said.

"My opinion is cautious, but I must tell you I think this is going to help. This is the opening of the door for what drugs to use and what questions to answer," the physician further stated.

Since March, when coronavirus hit Europe and the United States, doctors have been reporting mysterious blood clots, which can be gel-like or even semisolid, in a significant subset of coronavirus patients. Autopsies of patients who died of respiratory arrest have shown that some had unusual micro clots in their lungs rather than the typical damage expected.