Is this a COVID-19 reference in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War season 2? In season 2 episode 6 of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Miko Iino (a candidate for student council president election) says that her mother is busy distributing vaccines to a hotspot.



Does "hotspot" refers to the "heavily COVID-19 affected area"? Also "vaccines" may refer to an anti-COVID vaccine and so this statement can be relevant to the ongoing COVID pandemic. So, is the story of this anime progressing in the pandemic?
Unlikely.

The anime is an adaptation of the manga, which is the canonical source. According to Fandom Wiki, episode 18 (season 2 episode 6) adapts chapter 67-69 of the manga. This particular scene is from chapter 68 titled I Want to Make Miko Iino Smile which was published on 22 June 2017, long before the COVID-19 outbreak happened.

Regarding the term "hot spot", it actually means "conflict hot spot". The original text in Japanese is 紛争地域 which means "disputed territory; conflict area".

The fan translation of this scene is




  My mom's giving vaccines in a war zone,


which gives more context than a general term "hot spot".