The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused a major healthcare crisis worldwide.1., 2. Diabetes has been identified as a risk factor for severe COVID-19 infection course and increased mortality.3 In many countries, lockdown strategies have been implemented as a measure to control the COVID-19 outbreak, but for millions of people, including patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes, this brought significant changes to many aspects of everyday life, such as levels of physical activity and degree of stress. People with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) were, similarly to those with type 2 diabetes (T2DM), severely affected by many aspects by COVID-19, which include the effects of limited access to healthcare, especially during periods of lockdown. For people with T1DM, this could lead to changes in adherence to schedules for meals and insulin administration.4., 5. When the strictest lockdown measures were applied, these patients had also very limited opportunities to exercise and were prone to unhealthy habits, such as overeating and sedentary lifestyle.6 Additionally, increased incidence of infectious complications and mortality was reported in COVID-affected adults with T1DM (compared with peers without diabetes).7

The COVID-19 pandemic has also influenced the healthcare provided for patients with diabetes. Multiple services have been canceled, including face-to-face outpatient visits and planned hospitalizations. Healthcare has been delivered remotely by phone or video calls, emails, or smartphone applications.8 Telehealth guidelines and legal instruments were introduced by the Polish authorities in late 2019, enabling medical practitioners to provide this type of care.9

However, patients and medical staff have faced challenges in becoming accustomed to constant use of technologies and tools, such as possibility to download patients' results and data-sharing apps for insulin pumps, which had not been routinely used in diabetes care.10 Thus, inevitable gaps in healthcare continuity occurred and posed challenges for adequate maintenance of glycemic control and other clinical outcomes. Preliminary reports from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that during the pandemic, patients with non-communicable diseases, including diabetes, have faced obstacles such as treatment delays or even temporary disruption of care.11 Therefore, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the medical care, glycemic control, and selected clinical outcomes of T1DM patients in a university diabetic outpatient clinic.