According to data, the number of infected has reached 341,000 people and about 15,000 deaths were caused by complications related to the new coronavirus.

A new study has come out of China that claims to have found that people with type A blood are more susceptible to the new Coronavirus, Forbes magazine writes.

Scientists from Wuhan and Shenzhen examined the blood samples of 2 173 patients from different parts of China. All of them were infected with COVID-19. The results are curious:

The likelihood of contracting the virus and how difficult it will be to overcome the disease depends largely on the blood type.

Blood group A had a significantly higher risk for [contracting] COVID-19 compared with non-A blood groups. They are also the least resistant to infection and, accordingly, the likelihood of becoming ill is the greatest. People with zero blood type, by contrast, are the most resistant.

The researchers note that the results are still only preliminary and have not been definitively confirmed.

“The work is very preliminary, but it is biologically plausible that different blood groups might vary in their susceptibility to COVID-19.” Say Dr. William A. Petri, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Virginia, after reviewing the study.