This study explored the association between BMI and COVID-19 positive status in a tertiary care hospital from New Delhi. Three hundred and seventy nine adult patients who presented to COVID-19 screening outpatient department of the hospital were interviewed over the phone regarding their body weight and height. The COVID-19 RT-PCR report of the patients was extracted from the hospital information system. The mean BMI and the prevalence of obesity was observed to be higher in individuals who were detected to be COVID-19 RT-PCR positive as compared to those who were negative. With every one-unit increment in BMI above 23 kg/m2, the odds of being COVID-19 positive increased by 1.8 times among these patients. The findings suggest a dose-response association between BMI and the odds of COVID-19 infection in individuals with excess weight. •Excess body weight is a risk factor for incurring severe COVID-19 infection.•There appears to be a dose response association between BMI and the odds of COVID 19 infection.•Subsequent studies should be conducted to study whether excess body weight is an independent risk factor for COVID-19. This study suggests that there is a dose-response association between BMI and odds of COVID-19 infection in individuals with excess weight, with every one unit increment in BMI above 23 kg/m2, the odds of COVID-19 increases by 1.8 times as compared to normal body weight (i.e. BMI less than 23 kg/m2).