By Rachael Rettner - Senior Writer- Live Science

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients were also at higher risk for 17 serious health complications, compared with flu patients.

COVID-19 truly is more deadly than the flu — patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were five times more likely to die than those with the flu, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

What's more, the study found COVID-19 patients were at higher risk for 17 additional, serious health complications, including pneumonia, respiratory failure and blood clots, compared with flu patients. However, because the study only looked at hospitalized patients, it can't directly compare overall mortality rates between the two diseases.

Ever since the new coronavirus was discovered in early January, people have compared it with the flu. As recently as this month, President Donald Trump drew criticism when he posted on Twitter that COVID-19 is "far less lethal" than the flu; the post was quickly flagged for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, according to NBC News.

COVID-19 patients were also at higher risk for dozens of complications. For example, compared with flu patients, COVID-19 patients were nearly 19 times more likely to develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a serious lung condition that causes low blood oxygen levels. COVID-19 patients were also more than twice as likely to develop  myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), deep vein thrombosis (a blood clot typically in the legs), pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lungs) and intracranial hemorrhage (a brain bleed), than flu patients.

The study also found that minority groups, including Black and Hispanic patients, were at higher risk for many complications, such as respiratory, neurologic, and kidney complications, compared with white patients, even after the researchers took into account patients' age and underlying medical conditions. The finding adds to a growing body of evidence showing that minority groups have been hit hard by COVID-19, which may be due to "social, environmental, economic and structural inequities," the report said.

Overall, the findings "illustrate the increased risk for complications involving multiple organ systems among patients with COVID-19 compared with those with influenza," the authors wrote. "Clinicians should be vigilant for symptoms and signs of a spectrum of complications among hospitalized patients with COVID-19 so that interventions can be instituted to improve outcomes and reduce long-term disability."