diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index fc27f82c2..1eb2f0244 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 
 TF_VERSION = '>=1.15.0,<2.0'
 TESTS_REQUIRE = [
+    # remove pin once https://github.com/nedbat/coveragepy/issues/881 fixed
+    'coverage==4.5.4',
     'codecov',
     'codespell',
     'flake8',