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We designed a series of peptides mimicking the <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>-terminal helix of hACE2 protein which contains most of the contacting residues at the binding site, exhibiting a high helical folding propensity in aqueous solution. Our best peptide-mimics are able to block SARS-CoV-2 human pulmonary cell infection with an inhibitory concentration (IC<jats:sub>50<\/jats:sub>) in the nanomolar range upon binding to the virus spike protein with high affinity. 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