Hypertension has been the most common form of comorbidities among the majority of COVID-19 admitted to AIIMS in September.

Officials added that around 98.5 per cent of COVID-19 patients admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) recorded underlying health conditions or comorbidities.

Health experts said that there is a grave interlink between comorbidities and coronavirus infection.

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"Patients with hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive lung, carcinoma or chronic kidney disease have a higher chance of succumbing to the disease," experts said.

Quoting to Animesh Ray, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at AIIMS, IANS reported, "In September, 137 patients were admitted to AIIMS, and comorbidities were present in 98.5 per cent of them."

"There was the presence of comorbidities in almost all the patients, barring two," Ray added.

"Hypertension was the most common form of ailment in the patients, followed by diabetes and malignancy," Ray added.

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He further informed that one in four patients had multiple comorbidities and out of 137 patients, 128 were discharged while 9 succumbed to the disease.

Among them, six were asymptomatic or had a mild infection, while three were severely ill, Ray further said during the AIIMS National Combined Grand Rounds on COVID-19.

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"Comorbidities not only lead to a poor prognosis in terms of morbidity and mortality but sometimes they also get aggravated because of underline COVID-19," said AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria.

"Diabetes has emerged as important comorbidity. It can lead to poor prognosis in terms of morbidity and mortality, especially where diabetes is not well-controlled," Guleria said.

"It has been well said that a collision of two pandemics - COVID-19 pandemic and diabetes pandemic - has led to worse outcomes in these patients," the AIIMS director added.

"There is a bi-directional flow as far as diabetes and COVID-19 is concerned and diabetic individuals have more severe COVID-19 infection," Dr Guleria added.