Transplant centres in France and USA saw a huge reduction in deceased donor transplants because of the COVID-19 outbreak. By early April the number of transplants dropped by 91 percent in France and 50 percent in the USA compared to a month earlier. Experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Paris Transplant Group attributed it to a steep reduction in the number of kidney transplants as well as a drop in the number of heart, lung and liver transplants. A strong link between the surge of COVID-19 infections and this reduction was observed. In the USA, the number of recovered organs dropped from more than 110 a day on March 6 to fewer than 60 per day on April 5. During the same timeframe, the number of transplanted kidneys dropped from nearly 65 a day to about 35 per day. France may have experienced a larger drop in transplants because of a coordinated national effort to reduce clinical activity, whereas in the USA individual states had discretion to impose restrictions and hospital practice may have varied to a greater degree. One of the co-authors of this study that appeared in The Lancet said that international comparisons were important because transplant systems that developed best practices could then share them with other countries.