The correlation between pneumonia, an inflammatory condition of lung alveoli with a compromised ability for gas exchange, and cardiovascular complications has been well established (Cilli et al., 2018; Corrales-Medina et al., 2011). For example, patients with underlying cardiovascular disease are more likely to develop community-acquired pneumonia (Corrales-Medina et al., 2015) and about 8 to 25% of patients with community acquired pneumonia develop at least one cardiac complication during their hospital stay. The exaggerated cardiovascular episodes after pneumonia have been associated with increased mortality (Corrales-Medina et al., 2012; Viasus et al., 2013). In line with these observations, cardiac complications have been reported in patients with novel coronavirus infections such as tachycardia and hypotension, which are common in SARS patients. Moreover, arrhythmia, cardiomegaly and diastolic dysfunction have been reported in SARS patients (Li et al., 2003; Yu et al., 2006). In addition, infection with MERS-CoV was associated with acute myocarditis, myocardial edema and severe left ventricular dysfunction (Alhogbani, 2016).