This broader swath of data largely echoes the CDC findings. One difference: CarePort found that, after adjusting the estimated mortality rate to take age into account, chronic kidney disease appears to correspond to a 2.5 times greater risk of death among hospitalized patients.

According to CarePort, an 85-year-old who has no chronic diseases and is hospitalized faces a mortality risk between 22 and 27 percent. But if the person has what is known as existing acute kidney injury, the mortality rate spikes to 39 to 49 percent.

“The strongest signal for us based on our data seems to be kidney disease,” Hu said.

These numbers reinforce what has been known about covid-19 since it first flared in China: This is a disease that is far more severe in the elderly, people with underlying chronic diseases and particularly older people with multiple chronic conditions.