The COVID‑19 pandemic has had a significant and lasting impact on health systems and economies in most countries around the world, including those in the Asia-Pacific region. Since January 2020, over 1 million people have died due to the COVID‑19 pandemic in the Asia-Pacific region, and more than 80 million lost their jobs in 2020. Amid the recovery is under way, it is critical that stakeholders identify lessons learned, while at the same time leveraging heightened awareness of the importance of health resilience and preparedness to propel investment, commitment, and action towards building resilient health systems that are adequately prepared for the complex health challenges of the future.

Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific presents a set of key indicators on health and health systems for 27 Asia-Pacific countries and territories. It builds on the format used in previous editions of Health at a Glance to present comparable data on health status and its determinants, health care resources and utilisation, health care expenditure and financing and health care quality.

Health at a Glance: Asia/Pacific 2022 presents key indicators on health status, determinants of health, health care resources and utilisation, health expenditure and financing, and quality of care for 27 Asia-Pacific countries and territories. Countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region are diverse, and their health issues and health systems differ. However, these indicators provide a concise overview of the progress of countries towards achieving universal health coverage for their population.

The aim of this chapter is to show a set of key indicators to compare performance across countries and territories in each of the following dimensions:

COVID‑19 has had a huge impact across the Asia-Pacific region, testing the resilience of economies and health systems, and placing an immense pressure on health workers operating at the front line. This chapter analyses the direct impact of the pandemic on the health of the populations by looking at COVID‑19 cases and deaths as well as its indirect impact by assessing the disruption to essential health services due to COVID‑19. It also looks at country responses to the pandemic based on the pandemic situations and national capabilities and contexts. These analyses show that COVID‑19 has had an unequal impact in the region between high-, middle- and low-income countries, in particular by amplifying inequities and inequalities.