The research on COVID-19 was a focus area and hot topic of the academic community in 2020.The literatures related to COVID-19 published in WOS and CNKI databases were taken as the research object to analyze their thematic characteristics and topic clusters by using the methods of bibliometrics, in order to provide a reference for researchers and decision makers. The subject analysis of COVID-19 research found that scholars at home and abroad paid more attention to the clinical medicine and public health research of COVID-19, as well as mental health of medical staff, online teaching and vaccine research were more seriously.Foreign countries focused on basic medical research for COVID-19, while domestic research focused on humanities and social sciences.A cluster analysis of the spread of highly cited literatures on international COVID-19 research found that the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19, the structure and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2, as well as the pathological diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 are the focus of both current and future attention.