Liver injury was common in the patients infected by the other two highly pathogenic coronavirus—SARS-CoV and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus—and associated with the severity of diseases. In patients with COVID-19, several studies have reported the incidence of liver injury, indicating that 2% to 11% of patients with COVID-19 had liver comorbidities and 16% to 53% cases reported abnormal levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) .
Liver injury in patients with COVID-19 might be due to viral infection in liver cells or due to other causes such as drug-induced liver injury and systemic inflammation induced by cytokine storm or pneumonia-associated hypoxia
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Patients with chronic liver disease do not seem to be at greater risk of acquiring the infection than other individuals in the general population. People who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 appear to relatively spare the liver or have only a modest effect
(Mild to moderate elevation of AST and to a lesser extent ALT) with the exception of liver failure in patients with very severe COVID-19 infection leading to multi-visceral deficiencies and of patients with decompensated cirrhosis of the liver.
Ref: Article COVID-19 and the liver-related deaths to come