Ischaemic heart diseases and stroke were the two major causes of death in Asia-Pacific in 2016, accounting for 34.8% of total deaths in South East Asia and 25.2% of all deaths in the Western Pacific region (WHO, 2018[10])]; (see indicator “Mortality from cardiovascular diseases” in Chapter 3). Additionally, both are associated with significant health, social and non-financial costs, because of the persistent disabilities suffered by many survivors. Treatment following acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke has advanced greatly over the past decades. Until the 1990s, treatment focused on prevention of complications and rehabilitation but since then great improvements in AMI survival rates were achieved with thrombolysis (Gil et al., 1999[11]). Treatment for ischaemic stroke has also advanced dramatically over the last decade, through early identification of suspected ischaemic stroke patients and timely acute reperfusion therapy. Dedicated cardiac care and stroke units offering timely and proactive therapy achieve better survival than conservative care (Seenan, Long and Langhorne, 2007[12]), although studies have shown that a considerable number of patients fail to receive high-quality, evidence-based care (Eagle et al., 2005[13]). Moreover, due to COVID‑19, access to high-quality care was hampered in some cases. In Hong Kong, China, for instance, there was an increase in the delayed access to high-quality care among patients suffered from AMIs because of hospitals following additional precautionary measures to prevent infection and/or patients fearing from infection (Tam et al., 2020[14]).