Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of EG-009A Compared to DEX in Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia

Inclusion Criteria: 1. Willing and able to provide written informed consent, or with a legal representative who can provide informed consent, or enrolled under International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) E6(R2) 4.8.15 emergency use provisions as deemed necessary by the investigator (age ≥18), or willing and able to provide assent (age ≥12 to \<18, where locally and nationally approved) prior to performing study procedures 2. Patient is aged at least 18 years, enrollment of patients \< 65 years old will be limited to 20% of the total with the first 50% of enrollment conducted solely among those patients ≥ 55 years old. 3. Patient has SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia from COVID-19 infection of moderate to serious severity (WHO Ordinal Scale for Clinical Improvement score of 4 or 5) 4. Patient has COVID-19 symptoms ≤ 10 days and at least 1 of the following: * Radiographic infiltrates by imaging (chest x-ray, CT scan, etc.) * O2 saturation (SpO2) ≤ 94% on room air * Requiring supplemental O2 (patients on HFNO ≤ 20 L/min with FiO2 \< 0.5 are allowed), but not requiring mechanical ventilation. Note: Patients admitted with immediate need for mechanical ventilation are of a severity too critical for inclusion into this protocol. Patients who are already in the hospital and have been removed from mechanical ventilation are not eligible. Exclusion Criteria: 1. Patient has SARS-CoV-2 infection of severity ≥ 6 on COVID-19 WHO Ordinal Scale for Clinical Improvement or for those subjects who have a WHO Ordinal Scale for Clinical Improvement score of 5, nasal intermittent positive pressure ventilation (NIPPV) or requiring HFNO \> 20 L/min with FiO2 ≥ 0.5 will be exclusionary. 2. Patient is currently receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, nitric oxide therapy, or high-frequency oscillatory ventilation 3. Patient is unlikely to survive for \> 24 hours from randomization, in the opinion of the investigator 4. Patient has a history of chronic oxygen use or any pre-existing respiratory condition that requires intermittent or continuous ambulatory oxygen prior to hospitalization 5. Patient has a history of venous thromboembolism, DVT, or pulmonary embolus 6. Has taken other investigational drugs or participated in any clinical study within 30 days or 5 half-lives (if known) of the investigational drug's PK, PD, or biological activity (if known), whichever is longer, prior to the first dose of study drug in this study or is currently participating in another clinical study.