Issue #172: Covid is Still Out There 5 Years On - And it's Still Unpleasant!

Many Asian travellers visiting Europe for CNY masked-up for a good reason.

Feb 09, 2025

Welcome to a coughing and spluttering Issue 172 of Asia Travel Re:Set.

59 months ago on Tuesday - or, more pertinently, 5 years ago on 11 March - the WHO stated that Covid-19 “can be characterized as a pandemic.”

This week, I got hit by a third strike in Bordeaux.

And, frankly, I was out.

So, let’s briefly follow that train of thought.

Thanks for checking in…

Covid is Still Out There 5 Years On!

On 11 March 2020, when the WTO made its decade-altering declaration, 118,000 cases had been recorded in 114 countries, and 4,291 people had died.
By 19 January 2025, 777,335,228 cases had been recorded globally, with 7,084,,023 fatalities.

Europe, perhaps unsurprisingly given the northern hemisphere winter, is currently the most virulent region worldwide. 17,736 Covid cases were recorded in Europe in the 7 days to 19 January compared to 14 in South East Asia...

…. Which contributes to explaining why my wife and I spent much of the past week toughing out rather nasty bouts of Covid in Bordeaux and Paris.

Flight or Convention Centre?

Tracking how you catch Covid is kinda futile. The source may have been a flight from Dubai-Paris, or my wife attending an international trade show in Paris. If either is true, many other people would have been simultaneously and secondarily infected.

Over the past 5 years, experiences of Covid vary wildly. Some people brush it off quickly, others are still enduring painful physical and emotional outcomes.

My two previous bouts, in July 2022 and December 2024, were both debilitating for around 7 days, and left residual lethargy and energy deficits for up to a month.

Seven days in for v03, I was inhaling medical oxygen via a nebuliser on return to KL. Covid triggered a bronchial infection which was, apparently, lurking near a lung.

Physical symptoms are known to overlap with macabre dreams and hallucinations. I ticked off both for the first time this week in a quaint hotel room a few steps from Bordeaux’s grand neo-classical Opera House.

Few Asian Tourists in Town

Interestingly, in our hotel, and across the city’s photogenic spread of streets, alleys and squares, I encountered hardly any Asian tourists. If Chinese tourists are - as sentiment surveys and OTA data indicate - exploring more secondary and tertiary cities, Bordeaux wasn’t, for this CNY holiday at least, on the itinerary for France.

That’s a shame. It’s is an absolute gem, and counts eclectic Asian dining - from plentiful Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisines, to family-owned Indonesian, Tibetan and Vietnamese restaurants.

And the weather is much better - and the prices more reasonable - than Paris!

Here are a few photos to leave you with…