COVID-19 makes a comeback in Asia: Should India be worried?

Singapore. Hong Kong. China. India. Covid is back in headlines — but it’s not the same virus as before.

Transcript

00:00Actress Shilpa Shirodkar took to her social media account to confirm that she had tested

00:04positive for the COVID virus.

00:06In Mumbai, a 59-year-old woman with cancer and a 14-year-old girl with kidney disease

00:11died at BMC-run KEM Hospital in Parel on May 19, 2025.

00:16Both were found to be infected with COVID-19 after their death.

00:19However, doctors have clarified that these deaths have not been due to COVID-19.

00:24KEM Hospital authorities said that the 14-year-old pediatric patient had nephrotic syndrome and

00:29died due to kidney failure while the cancer patient died of sepsis.

00:33Authorities said that there was no need to panic.

00:35KEM Hospital saw 15 mild flu-like cases in two months, all of whom recovered.

00:40Serious illness is rare and mostly limited to those with comorbidities.

00:59However, Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Thailand are all seeing a fresh wave of COVID-19 infections,

01:05the sharpest rise in nearly a year.

01:07In Singapore, COVID cases jumped 30% in just one week of May 2025 at 14,200 cases.

01:14In China, hospital test positivity has more than doubled.

01:18And in Hong Kong, nearly 50 severe cases and deaths in just two weeks.

01:22In Hong Kong, COVID-19 activity has climbed to a quite high level, said Albert Orr, head of the

01:27Communicable Disease Branch and the Centre for Health Protection.

01:30Respiratory samples testing positive for the virus have reached their highest point in a year.

01:35China is seeing similar trends, with test positivity rates in hospitals

01:39more than doubling in the five weeks leading up to May 4, according to the Chinese CDC.

01:44In Thailand, clusters of infections have emerged after Songran festival in April 2025.