When a 70-year-old public speaker suddenly collapsed on stage, all the medical tests came back negative – until a Singapore specialist uncovered the hidden culprit five days later: Covid-19.

“He had the prodromal symptoms, the flu and a runny nose that were the early warning signs of Covid-19. The infection weakened him and caused him to collapse,” says Dr Asok Kurup, a visiting consultant at the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH).

Since 2020, he has been a member of the Health Sciences Authority’s panel of infectious diseases experts for Covid-19. In April, he was appointed to the inaugural Board for the Communicable Diseases Agency led by the Ministry of Health.

“Covid-19 is not gone, it is still around,” Dr Kurup says.

“It is not just causing mild infections but it may also be causing problems in people who are old and who have many medical problems.”

As public concern about Covid-19 eases significantly, the vaccination rate for Covid-19 has also fallen.¹

Dr Kurup warns against complacency as herd immunity levels in the community have dropped over time, but new SARS-CoV-2 variants – the newest being the LP.8.1 strain – are still circulating. For some groups of people, it results in severe symptoms.

Citing recent studies^2,3, Dr Kurup says that the risk of experiencing a cardiovascular event is higher in people infected with Covid-19, but being up-to-date with protection can help reduce the risks.⁴

Singapore saw its most recent surge in Covid-19 cases in the week of Apr 27 to May 3, 2025. During that period, the estimated number of Covid-19 cases was

14,200, up from 11,100 in the previous week