In a recent study published by the Journal of Infection, investigators evaluated the antiviral effects and safety of administering arbidol and lopinavir/ritonavir to treat patients with COVID-19. Fifty patients that had tested positive for COVID-19 were divided into the following two groups, an arbidol group that had 16 patients and a lopinavir/ritonavir group that had 34 patients. The former group received 0.2 g of arbidol, three times a day for a week, while the latter group was given 400 mg/100 mg of lopinavir/ritonavir, twice a day. The data was retrospectively analyzed. RT-PCR assays were used to monitor cycle threshold values of open reading frame 1ab and nucleocapsid genes during antiviral therapy. On day 14 after the admission of the drugs, viral load was not detected in the arbidol group, but was detected in 44.1% patients treated with lopinavir/ritonavir. These results show that the patients receiving arbidol had a shorter duration of the positive RNA test compared to those in the other group. Additionally, apparent side effects were not observed in both groups. Overall, the data reported in this study suggest that arbidol monotherapy may be superior to lopinavir/ritonavir in treating COVID-19.