It can be assumed that patients with DM are more likely to be older than those without DM and advancing age has consistently been shown to be associated with poor prognosis in COVID-19, however, most of the aforementioned studies did not adjust for age. Nevertheless, diabetes has been uniformly reported to be associated with poor prognosis in other viral infections, notably seasonal influenza, pandemic influenza A H1N1 (2009), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) [5], [6], [7], [8]. Multiple explanations can be put forward for this apparent association between pre-existing DM and COVID-19 severity. Innate immunity, the first line of defense against SARS-CoV-2, is inevitably compromised in patients with uncontrolled DM thereby allowing unhindered proliferation of the pathogen within the host [9]. Even short-term hyperglycemia has been shown to transiently stun the innate immune system [10]. Moreover, DM is characterized by exaggerated pro-inflammatory cytokine response, notably interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6 and tumor-necrosis factor (TNF)-α, in the absence of appropriate immunostimulation; this may be further exaggerated in response to a stimulus as seen in patients with COVID-19 complicated by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) [9].