The OP created this topic in 2019 but the real hype of the NFT market started in this year. And this hype is getting higher and higher every day. There is a big interest from the people from everywhere in the world. There is insane amount of money paid for the NFTs. I have even heard some news like someone sold an NFT which is not existing in real life. It was some kind of an art according to the claim of the artist. 
I'm sure the covid things triggers this out because everyone is on the internet since they are not allowed to going anywhere, making money while at home is what people wanted to do this 2 recent years, the impact is also for crypto market that has grown so fast compared to pre covid.
And i think even when the covid is over, people will still hype with NFT because they already found out something potential on the internet.