Smoking linked to higher risk of coronavirus: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that smoking is linked to a higher risk of severe illness and death from Coronavirus in hospitalized patients. WHO has reportedly reviewed 34 published studies on the link between smoking and Coronavirus, including probability of infection, hospitalization, severity of disease and death from the virus. According to WHO, smokers represent up to 18 percent of hospitalized Coronavirus patients.

Earlier in April, French researchers had done a study on the link between Coronavirus and smoking. The study stated that smokers were at lesser risk of being infected by the virus and the researchers had planned to test nicotine patches on patients and health workers. But this study received a lot of criticism from across the world after which it was dropped.

WHO has recommended that smokers quit the habit so that they are less prone to Coronavirus infection.

The number of Coronavirus cases have crossed over 1 crore worldwide. More than 5 lakh people have lost their lives to the virus. United States remains to be the country with most number of cases. India has been ranked in fifth in terms of Coronavirus cases.