Although the overall mortality rate of COVID-19 is low (1.4–2.3%), patients with comorbidities are more likely to have severe disease and subsequent mortality [1], [2]. Most of the available studies have shown that diabetes mellitus (DM) as a distinctive comorbidity is associated with more severe disease, acute respiratory distress syndrome and increased mortality [1], [3], [4]. Amongst the 32 non-survivors from a group of 52 intensive care unit (ICU) patients, DM (22%) was a predominant underlying comorbidity [3]. Of the 1099 confirmed COVID-19 patients reported by Guan et al. from China, 173 had severe disease; patients with severe disease had a higher prevalence of DM (16.2%) as compared to those with non-severe disease (5.7%) [1]. Further, in the largest series reported by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention comprising of 72,314 cases of COVID-19, patients with DM had higher mortality (7.3% in DM vs. 2.3% overall) [2].