Objective: Identify allelic variants of HLA I related to possible resistance or susceptibility to severe SARS-CoV-2 infection and describe this relationship. Methods: This study is a descriptive literature review based on articles published between the years 2020 and 2021 in the databases: SciELO, ScienceDirect, PubMed /MEDLINE, Capes Periodicals, BVS, Wiley Online Library; that was available in Brazilian Portuguese and English. Results: The analyzed studies demonstrated that HLA I alleles can be considered like determinants of resistance or susceptibility to COVID-19 due to their ability to bind to SARS-CoV-2 peptides, influencing in the regulation of the immune response against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Conclusions: There is an agreement between the authors regarding the role of HLA I like a determinant of resistance and genetic susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, where the HLA-B*46:01 was the most cited (20% frequency) as allele that confers susceptibility to the virus, and HLA-A *02: 01 and HLA-A *31: 01 were the most cited among the alleles that may confer protection against the most severe infection of COVID-19 (frequency of 19% and 18 % respectively).