One in 10 diabetics, who get infected by the coronavirus, dies within seven days of hospital admission, according to a study of more than 1,300 patients published in the journal Diabetologia.

According to AFP, two-thirds of the patients were men, and the average age across both sexes was 70, the study found.

"The presence of diabetic complications and increased age increase the risk of death," the researchers said in a statement.

"Increased BMI" — body mass index, a ratio of height to weight — "is associated with both increased risk of needing mechanical ventilation and with increased risk of death," they said.

Read the full AFP story here.