"Respiratory disease" increases the risk of severe illness and death from the coronavirus...

MOVING TO FRONT FROM MARCH 13:  UPDATED

...but what counts as "respitatory disease"?   Clearly something like emphysema or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, but what about asthma (or different kinds of asthma)?   On that, I've heard different opinions.   Does anyone know?  Links welcome.

UPDATE:  Some time in the last week, it appears, the CDC added "moderate to severe asthma" as a risk factor for "serious illness" from COVID-19.  That's obviously unhappy news for many people, but all the more reason for those with moderate or severe asthma to take extra precautions.   I note that the CDC also lists extremel obesity (BMI greater than 40) as a risk factor, probably because of the pressure weight places on the lungs, but I don't know if that's the reason.

The chart below the fold explains the meaning of terms like "moderate" and "severe":

Classifying Asthma Severity and Initiating Treatment for Patients 12 Years and Older

Components of severity	Classification of asthma severity ≥ 12 years of age*
	Intermittent	Persistent-mild	Persistent-moderate	Persistent-severe
Impairment
Symptoms	≤ 2 days per week	> 2 days per week, but not daily	Daily	Throughout the day
Nighttime awakenings	≤ 2 times per month	3 to 4 times per month	> Once per week, but not nightly	Often 7 times per week
Short-acting beta agonist use for symptom control (not for prevention of exercise-induced bronchospasm)	≤ 2 days per week	> 2 days per week, but not more than once per day	Daily	Several times per day
Interference with normal activity	None	Minor limitation	Some limitation	Extremely limited
Lung function	Normal FEV1 between exacerbations; FEV1 >80 percent of predicted; FEV1/FVC normal	FEV1 ≥ 80 percent of predicted; FEV1/FVC normal	FEV1 > 60 percent but < 80 percent of predicted; FEV1/FVC reduced 5 percent	FEV1 < 60 percent of predicted; FEV1/FVC reduced >5 percent
Risk
Exacerbations requiring oral systemic corticosteroids	0 to 1 per year†	≥ 2 per year†	≥ 2 per year†	≥ 2 per year†
	Consider severity and interval since last exacerbation; frequency and severity may fluctuate over time for patients in any severity category; relative annual risk of exacerbations may be related to FEV1