Purpose This paper was intended to describe the characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients with known chronic kidney disease (CKD) history. Methods Clinical information of 20 COVID-19 pneumonia patients with CKD history diagnosed between January 20th and March 1st, 2020 were collected in Tongji Hospital, Wuhan. We listed the clinical baseline data, laboratory findings, chest computed tomography (CT) changes and processed a short period of follow-up of these 20 patients. Results Based on the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) on admission, 6 patients were classified as stage 2 of CKD, 5 were as 3a, 2 were as 3b, 3 were as 4 and 4 were as 5, respectively. COVID-19 patients with CKD history were elder and hypertension was the most common comorbidity. Cough and fever accounted for more than 80% of the infectious cases. Lymphopenia, increased d-dimer and elevated infectious indications such as hypersensitive C response protein (hsCRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) were also common among these patients. Ground-glass opacity (GGO) and consolidation were the major manifestations in CT scans. 4 patients died and 7 patients underwent acute kidney injury (AKI) during observation. Among 16 discharged patients, 12 were with stable renal function and 4 had deteriorating renal function compared with that of admission. Conclusion Compared to general population infected with SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 patients with CKD history had a preference to develop to severity with higher fatality rate.