Hong Kong and Singapore report new Covid wave

Covid cases are spiking across Southeast Asia, especially in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Health officials in Hong Kong have reported a sharp rise in Covid cases, indicating the city has entered a new wave. The infection rate has climbed from 1.7 per cent in mid-March to 11.4 per cent now, exceeding the peak recorded in August 2024, according to data released by the Centre for Health Protection on Tuesday.

Covid activity in Hong Kong is currently “quite high”, according to Albert Au, head of the Communicable Disease Branch at the Centre for Health Protection.

The proportion of respiratory samples testing positive for the virus has recently hit its highest level in a year, Bloomberg reported.

In Singapore, the health ministry has issued its first Covid infection update in about a year, reporting a 28 per cent rise in estimated cases to 14,200 for the week ending 3 May compared to the previous week.

The health ministry and the Communicable Diseases Agency said they were monitoring the increase in Covid infections in the city state.

Although daily hospitalisations have climbed by about 30 per cent, the health ministry said in a statement, “there is no indication that the variants circulating locally are more transmissible or cause more severe disease compared to previously circulating variants”.

Singapore now releases Covid case numbers only when there’s a significant surge.

According to the health ministry, the resurgence in Covid cases is likely due to waning immunity rather than more severe or transmissible variants.

The primary Covid variants circulating in Singapore currently are LF.7 and NB.1.8, both offshoots of the JN.1 strain. Together, they make up more than two-thirds of the locally sequenced cases, according to health authorities.

China and Thailand are also experiencing Covid spikes, with China nearing last summer’s peak and Thailand seeing infection clusters, especially after April’s annual Songkran festival.