The COVID-19 pandemic began in Asia in Wuhan, Hubei, China, and has spread widely through the continent. As of 23 October 2026, at least one case of COVID-19 had been reported in every country in Asia except Turkmenistan.
The Asian countries with the highest numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases are India, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, and Iran. Despite being the first area of the world hit by the outbreak, the early wide-scale response of some Asian states, particularly Bhutan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Vietnam has allowed them to fare comparatively well. China was criticised for initially minimising the severity of the outbreak, but its wide-scale response has largely contained the disease since March 2020.
As of July 2021, the highest numbers of deaths are recorded in India, Indonesia, Iran, and Turkey, each with more than 90,000 deaths and more than 900,000 deaths combined. However, the death toll in Iran and Indonesia are claimed to be much higher than the official figures. Per capita, the highest deaths have been disproportionally in several Western Asian states, with Georgia having the highest figure closely followed by Armenia, and Iran in third, whereas China had the lowest.
Timeline by country and territory
Afghanistan
On 23 February 2020, at least three citizens of Herat who had recently returned from Qom were suspected of COVID-19 infection. Blood samples were sent to Kabul for further testing. Afghanistan later closed its border with Iran.
On 24 February, Afghanistan confirmed the first COVID-19 case involving one of the three people from Herat, a 35-year-old man who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. On 7 March, three new cases were confirmed in Herat Province. On 10 March, the first case reported outside of Herat province, was in Samangan Province, bringing to the total to five cases.
Armenia
Armenia confirmed the first case of coronavirus during the late night of 29 February/early morning of 1 March, announcing a 29-year-old Armenian citizen had returned from Iran and was confirmed positive for the virus. His wife was tested and results came in negative. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared that he is "now in good condition". About 30 people who came in contact with him are being tested and will be quarantined. Armenia had earlier closed its border with Iran. As of 15 March there are 23 confirmed cases with over 300 being in quarantine.
On 23 March, it confirmed 23 cases.
Azerbaijan
On 28 February, Azerbaijan confirmed the first case from a Russian national, who was travelling from Iran. On 12 March, a woman died from multiorgan failure who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 a day earlier. This marked the first death of coronavirus in Azerbaijan. On 22 March, the first domestic human to human transmission was confirmed. On 31 March, Azerbaijan declared nationwide quarantine. People are required to stay in private houses and apartments, permanent or temporary places of residence until 20 April.
Bahrain
The first case in the country was confirmed on 21 February. The index case was a school bus driver who had travelled to Iran. Bahrain has recorded a total of 2,009 COVID-19 cases including 7 deaths and 1,026 recoveries. The Bahraini government has unveiled a stimulus packages of 4.3 billion Bahraini Dinars that include exempting consumers from bills of electricity and water for three months.
Bangladesh
The first three COVID-19 cases of the country were found on 7 March 2020 that was officially confirmed on 8 March 2020 by Professor Dr Meerjady Sabrina Flora, former director, Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), then. Two of those affected returned to Bangladesh from Italy and one was a family member of one of those two. On 18 March, the first known coronavirus death in the country was reported.
On 22 March, Bangladesh declared a 10-day shutdown effective from 26 March to 4 April to fight the spread of coronavirus.
Bangladesh on Wednesday reported the fifth death from the coronavirus though no new case of the infection came out in the last 24 hours as the country suspended all domestic flights, trains and public transport to fight the pandemic.
The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has confirmed that one more person has died of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in Bangladesh, taking the number of deaths from the disease in the country to five, the Dhaka Tribune reported.
Bangladesh on Wednesday confirmed another death taking the death toll in the country to six while number of positive cases rose to 54.The nationwide lockdown has been extended till 9 April to curb the spread, however Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday said that offices and industries could resume work. Health minister Zahid Malik said "another 300 ventilators are being imported. There are about 700 ventilators across private hospitals".
Bhutan
On 6 March, the first case in the country was confirmed, a 76-year-old US male who travelled to the country.
Brunei
On 9 March, the Ministry of Health confirmed that a preliminary coronavirus test had returned positive for a 53-year-old male who had returned from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 3 March. The patient was moved to the National Isolation Centre in Tutong for treatment.
Cambodia
On 27 January, Cambodia confirmed the first COVID-19 case in Sihanoukville, a 60-year-old Chinese man, travelling to the coastal city from Wuhan with his family on 23 January. Three other members of his family were placed under quarantine as they did not appear to have symptoms, while he was placed in a separate room at the Preah Sihanouk Referral Hospital.
By 10 February, after two weeks of being treated and kept under observation, he had fully recovered, Health Ministry stated on account of testing negative for the third time by Pasteur Institute of Cambodia. The family were finally discharged and flew back to their home country on the next day as of the 80 Chinese nationals who arrived in Sihanoukville on the same flight as the patient, most had since returned to China, although the city of Wuhan remained under quarantine at that time.
China
The COVID-19 pandemic first originated in Wuhan, Hubei in which it manifested itself as cluster of mysterious suspected pneumonia cases. Sophisticated modelling of the outbreak suggests that the number of cases in mainland China would have been many times higher without interventions such as early detection, and isolation of the infected.
Analyses have found that southern China had COVID-19 cases per capita than northern China, except in the early days of the pandemic. Some researchers have argued that could be because southern China has a history of rice farming, which required more coordination to manage shared irrigation networks. Thus, rice-farming cultures have stronger social norms, which were linked to stronger COVID pre-cautions, such as mask-wearing.
Following the initial outbreak, China opted for containment, inflicting strict lockdowns to eliminate spread.
The vaccines distributed in China included the BIBP, WIBP, and CoronaVac. It was reported on 11 December 2021, that China had vaccinated 1.162 billion of its citizens, or 82.5% of the total population of the country against COVID-19. China's large-scale adoption of zero-COVID had largely contained the first waves of infections of the disease. When the waves of infections due to the Omicron variant followed, China was almost alone in pursuing the strategy of zero-Covid to combat the spread of the virus in 2022. Lockdown continued to be employed in November to combat a new wave of cases; however, protests erupted in cities across China over the country's stringent measures, and in December that year, the country relaxed its zero-COVID policy. On 20 December 2022, the Chinese State Council narrowed its definition of what would be counted as a COVID-19 death to include solely respiratory failure, which led to skepticism by health experts of the government's total death count at a time when hospitals reported being overwhelmed with cases following the abrupt discontinuation of zero-COVID.
On 29 December 2022, the U.S. joined Italy, Japan, Taiwan and India in requiring negative COVID-19 test results from all people traveling from China due to the new surge in cases. The European Union initially refused similar measures, stating that the BF7 omicron variant had already spread throughout Europe without becoming dominant, but changed its stance following an emergency meeting of EU diplomats on 4 January 2023.
Christmas Island
On 8 March, the Australian external territory of Christmas Island reported its first case of COVID-19.
Cyprus
On 9 March, Cyprus confirmed its first 2 cases, one in Nicosia and one in Limassol.
Georgia
All flights from China and Wuhan to Tbilisi International Airport were cancelled until 27 January. The Health Ministry announced that all arriving passengers from China would be screened. Georgia also temporarily shut down all flights to Iran.
On 26 February, Georgia confirmed its first COVID-19 case. A 50-year-old man, who returned to Georgia from Iran, was admitted to Infectious Diseases Hospital in Tbilisi. He came back to the Georgian border via Azerbaijan by taxi.
On 28 February, Georgia confirmed that a 31-year-old Georgia woman who had travelled to Italy tested positive and was admitted to Infectious Diseases Hospital in Tbilisi.
29 more are being kept in isolation in a Tbilisi hospital, with Head of the Georgian National Centre for Disease Control, Amiran Gamkrelidze stating there was a "high probability" that some of them have the virus.
On 5 March, five people have tested positive for the new coronavirus COVID-19 in Georgia increasing the total number of people infected in the country to nine. Head of the Georgian National Centre for Disease Control Amiran Gamkrelidze made the announcement at the recent news briefing following today. He said, all of the five people belong to the same cluster who travelled together to Italy and returned to Georgia on Sunday.
On 7 March, three people have tested positive for the new coronavirus in Georgia increasing the total number of people infected individuals in the country to twelve. Head of the Georgian National Centre for Disease Control Amiran Gamkrelidze said at a news briefing the following day that there is still no reason to panic. One of the infected individuals is Gamkrelidze's son Nikoloz. Gamkrelidze wrote on his Facebook page that he contracted the illness from a coworker, who has been tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Georgia has suspended direct flights with Italy to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the country. Coronavirus in Georgia has mostly been detected in passengers who have travelled in Italy recently.
Hong Kong
As of 1 March, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection had identified 100 cases (Including 2 Suspected Recovered Cases) in Hong Kong, with 36 patients since recovered and 2 died. By 2 April, the number of confirmed or probable cases in Hong Kong has risen to 767 after an influx of returning overseas students. 467, or 60.89% of cases were imported cases.
India
The COVID-19 pandemic in India is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2. As of 1 November 2026, according to Indian government figures, India has the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the world (after the United States) with 45,056,221 reported cases of COVID-19 infection and the third-highest number of COVID-19 deaths (after the United States and Brazil) at 533,849 deaths. In October 2021, the World Health Organization estimated 4.7 million excess deaths, both directly and indirectly related to COVID-19 to have taken place in India. Multiple studies, using several different sources of data and methods, have found similarly large estimates of excess deaths in India. These deaths were distributed unequally - marginalized social groups and women were more likely to have been impacted compared to privileged social groups and men.
The first cases of COVID-19 in India were reported on 30 January 2020 in three towns of Kerala, among three Indian medical students who had returned from Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic. Lockdowns were announced in Kerala on 23 March, and in the rest of the country on 25 March. Infection rates started to drop in September. Daily cases peaked mid-September with over 90,000 cases reported per-day, dropping to below 15,000 in January 2021. A second wave beginning in March 2021 was much more devastating than the first, with shortages of vaccines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and other medical supplies in parts of the country. By late April, India led the world in new and active cases. On 30 April 2021, it became the first country to report over 400,000 new cases in a 24-hour period. Experts stated that the virus may reach an endemic stage in India rather than completely disappear; in late August 2021, Soumya Swaminathan said India may be in some stage of endemicity where the country learns to live with the virus.