question: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the cause of the global pandemic in 2020 resulting a massive morbidity & mortality The lung is the predominant organ involved in symptomatic patients with Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) along with involvement of other organs Understanding the histopathological changes of lung and other organs in COVID-19 become essential for not only formulating future management protocols but also for determing prognosis The collection of potentially contaminated tissues during the autopsy and further processing of them in histopathology laboratory with proper maintenance of safety protocol is of immense importance A review of the available scientific articles shows the diffuse alveolar damage and microvascular thrombi are common observation found in lung tissue in patients who died due to COVID-19 © 2020 BioMed Central Ltd unless otherwise stated Part of Springer Nature