NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

7.

Natural Disaster Databook 2022

ADRC publishes the Natural Disaster Databook annually to provide statistical and analytical perspectives ofdisaster data. For its 2022 issue, ADRC used the data from the Emergency Event Database (EM-DAT)
downloaded on 16 May 2023 to analyze the number of occurrences, deaths, people affected, and economic
losses from disaster events – focusing only on eight disaster types: drought, earthquake, extreme
temperature, flood, landslide, storm, wildfire, and volcanic activity (Annex 3: Notes on the Sources of Data).
The analysis compares the following:·

Comparison of natural disasters in 2022 with natural disasters in the last 30 years (1992–2021)·

Comparison of climate-related disasters in 2022 with climate-related disasters in the last 30 years (1992–
2021)

·

Comparison of the COVID-19 situations between global level and regional level (highlighting thesituations in ADRC member countries)

Here are some of the observations. First, although there was an increasing trend of disaster occurrence
globally, a decreasing trend of disaster occurrence was observed in Asian region in 2022. Likewise, thenumber of deaths, people affected, and the economic losses from natural disasters in Asia in 2022 were lower
compared to the annual averages for the past 30 years (1992–2021). Secondly, flood and storm remain to be
the frequently occurring disaster types globally and in the Asian region in 2022 and during the past 30 years.
Moreover, climate-related disasters, particularly from flood, storm, and drought, account for the highest
number of people affected and economic losses in 2022 and during the past 30 years. Thirdly, towards theend of 2022, both the number of confirmed cases and deaths from COVID-19 had declined drasticallylifting of COVID-19 restrictions and opening of borders in over 100 countries in the beginning of 2023.
In 2022, a total of 388 disasters occurred globally. This is higher compared to the annual average for the past
30 years (1992–2021), which is 340. Among the most devasting disasters in 2022 were floods in Pakistan(June to September), droughts in Africa (e.g., Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, China, Burkina Faso, Malawi,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, and Mali), typhoons in the Philippines (e.g., Megi in April
and Nalgae in October), and hurricanes (e.g., Hurricane Ian in Cuba and Hurricane Fiona in Dominican
Republic). While flood was the most frequent disaster in 2022, extreme temperature caused the most deaths(16,416 deaths) accounting to more than half of all disaster-related deaths. However, during the last 30 years(1992 to 2021), earthquakes remained to cause the most deaths from at an average of 990 deaths per
disaster event compared to only 52 per disaster event in 2022. The damage caused by disasters in 2022
(USD 223.84 million) is higher than the annual average disaster damage for the past 30 years (annual
average of USD 121.46 million).
The situation in Asia is different, where there is a decreasing trend of disaster impacts in 2022 compared to
the last 30 years (1992–2021). Occurrence of disasters in 2022 is 137, lower compared to the annual averageof 141 for the past 30 years. The number of deaths is also lower in 2022 at 7,750 compared to 30,909 annual
average for the past 30 years. Disaster affected people in 2022 is 64.23 million, less than half of the average
number of affected persons per year for the past 30 years, which is 168.81 million. The same is true for the63

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following a huge surge around the globe and at ADRC member countries. This drastic decline resulted in the

NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

amount of disaster damage. It’s USD 48.75 million in 2022, relatively lower than the average annual damage
for the past 30 years, which is USD 52.88 million.
Climate-related disasters (e.g., drought, flood, and storm) have been increasing globally, particularly since the1940s. In 2022, a total of 308 climate-related disasters was recorded worldwide, higher than those from thelast 30 years (1992 to 2021) that showed an annual average of 16 droughts, 147 floods, and 100 storms.
Except for drought, the number of people affected by 2022 climate-related disasters was less compared tothe average number of people affected per year by the same type of disasters during the past 30 years.
Meanwhile, the number of people affected by drought is 80 percent more compared to the annual average ofthe past 30 years. In Asia, a total of 98 climate-related disaster events occurred in 2022, which were mostly
floods.
Regarding COVID-19 situation, the highest number of confirmed cases for 2022 was reported on 19
December with a total of 44.20 million confirmed cases reported on a single day. A notable increase wasobserved in China in December due to an Omicron subvariant with at least eight other Omicron subvariants
were identified. Among the ADRC member countries, China showed the greatest cumulative number ofconfirmed COVID-19 cases at 84.93 million by the end of 2022. This was followed by India with 44.68 million,
Japan with 29.11 million, and the Republic of Korea with 29.06 million. Several ADRC member countries
started to relax COVID-19 restrictions in 2022, allowing more lenient policies on movement domestically.
India, Republic of Korea, and Japan are among the countries that lifted their domestic restrictions.
Vaccination also became a priority in ADRC member countries following the relaxation of restrictions with allcountries reporting to have had at least two vaccines administered by 2022.

7.1

Natural Disaster Data

Using EM-DAT’s 2022 data, this section presents the trends of natural disaster analyzed in terms of
Section 7

occurrence, death tolls, people affected, and economic losses.
7.1.1

Global Disaster Data

As shown in Figure 7.1, there has been an increasing trend of disaster occurrence from 1900 to 2022. Froman average of 56 disasters per year in the 1960s (with its peak of 81 in 1966), the average disasteroccurrence in the most recent decade (2012–2022) has reached 363 events per year. Furthermore, 388
disasters occurred in 2022, more than thrice the average number of disaster events from 1990 to 2021 (119disaster events). During the entire period of 1900–2022, flood (39%) and storm (31%) were the most frequenttypes of disaster.

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Figure 7.1 Trend of natural disaster occurrence 1900–2022(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)·

Occurrence (global)

Globally, a total of 388 disasters occurred in 2022. Flood (177 events, 46 percent), storm (105 events, 28
percent), and earthquake (31 events, 8 percent) were the three most frequent disasters (Figure 7.2). Several
incidences of drought, landslide, wildfire, and extreme temperature and one volcanic activity were also
recorded.
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Figure 7.2 Global disaster occurrence by disaster type 1992–2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

Among the most devastating disasters in 2022 include the floods in Pakistan (June to September),Bangladesh (May to September), Guatemala (May), Nigeria (July), India (May), Chad (June), and South
Sudan (August). There were droughts in Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, China, Burkina Faso, Malawi,
Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Niger, and Mali. In the Philippines, typhoons Megi (local name:
Agaton) in April and Nalgae (local name: Paeng) in October made tremendous impacts. In September, Cuba
was impacted by hurricane Ian and the Dominican Republic was impacted by hurricane Fiona. Tropical Storm
Sitrang impacted Bangladesh in October while Indonesia was impacted by 5.6-magnitude earthquake in
November.
Overall, Southeast Asia was struck with the most disasters in 2022 (flood, storm, earthquake, volcanic
activity, and landslide) followed by South America (flood, landslide, earthquake, and wildfire), South Asia

(flood, storm, earthquake), East Africa (flood, storm, and drought), and Northern America (storm, flood, andwildfire).
The number of disasters in 2022 is higher by 14 percent compared to the annual average for the past 30
years (1992–2021), which is 340. However, it was noted that the number of extreme temperature events wasless in 2022. Most of the extreme temperature events in 2022 were due to extreme heat. Only Mongolia hadrecorded an extreme cold temperature. Moreover, the temperature recorded in countries affected was
relatively higher compared to the average extreme temperature recorded for the same country for the past 30
years.
·

Deaths (global)

In 2022, a total of 30,748 deaths caused by disasters (e.g., extreme temperature, flood, storm, drought,

wildfire, landslide, earthquake, extreme temperature, and volcanic activity) was recorded (Figure 7.3). It is
fewer than the annual average between 1992 and 2021, which is 49,414. Except for drought, the average
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number of deaths per disaster in 2022 (79 deaths per disaster event) is also lower than the average from1992 to 2021 (145 deaths per disaster). While flood was the most frequent disaster in 2022, extreme
temperature caused the most deaths. Extreme temperatures caused 16,416 deaths, which accounted formore than half of all disaster-related deaths in 2022. About 99 percent of them were recorded in Europe(Northern, Southern, and Western) while one percent were in Asia (East, South, and West). The recorded
death in 2022 for extreme temperature was nearly three times the 6,040 average number of deaths for the
past 30 years. Extreme temperature also had the highest number of deaths per disaster event at 1,368 perdisaster event in 2022.

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Figure 7.3 Number of people killed by disaster type 1992–2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

percent), and storm (5 percent). Floods caused 8,038 deaths in 2022, which is higher than the 30-year
average of 6,740. This can be attributed to the recent major floods that happened in Pakistan and
Bangladesh to name a few.
Due to major earthquake events that happened over the last 30 years (e.g., Haiti, Indonesia, and Japan),earthquakes remained to cause the most mortality from 1992 to 2021 at an average of 990 deaths per
disaster event. Comparatively, death per earthquake event for 2022 is significantly lower at 52 per event – thedeadliest of these were the 6-magnitude earthquake that hit Afghanistan, the 6-magnitude earthquake inIndonesia, and the 7-magnitude in China. Meanwhile, death per drought incidence in 2022 reached 113,
more than twice the average from 1992–2021, which is just 47. It was noted that among the 23 drought
incidences in 2022, a total of 2,601 deaths accounted for only two incidences: Uganda and the USA.
Globally, the total number of deaths also showed an increasing trend from 1992–2021. In terms of the total
number of deaths per year, earthquake caused the most deaths per year at 26,074. This was followed bystorm (8,788 per year), flood (6,740), extreme temperature (6,040), drought (1,495), landslide (876), volcanic
activity (109), and wildfire (83).

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Other disasters that recorded the most deaths are flood (26 percent), drought (8 percent), earthquake (5NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022·

People Affected (global)

An estimated of 186 million people were affected in 2022. There are 34.56 million affected people in Middle
Africa, 32.26 million in West Africa, 30.55 million in East Africa, 13.20 million in North Africa, and 12.72 million
in Southeast Asia. More than half of the affected people in 2022 (107.35 million) were affected by drought.
Meanwhile, floods affected 57.52 million (31 percent) storms affected 16.93 million (nine percent), whileearthquakes affected 3.6 million (2 percent).

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Figure 7.4 Number of people affected by disaster type 1992–2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

The total disaster-affected population in 2022 is fewer compared to the annual average of the affected
population for the past three decades (1992–2021), which is 196.85 million. However, drought affected more
people in 2022 compared with the annual average from 1992–2021. Drought-affected population in 2022

(107.35 million) is 80 percent more compared to the 1992–2021 average (59.61 million). Meanwhile, withreference to 1992–2021 data, Asia has the most affected population, wherein almost 84 percent of theaffected population was located. About 10 percent were in Africa while five percent were in America.
South Asia and African regions had the greatest number of people affected by disasters in 2022. Disaster
affected population in South Asia reached 44.46 million, 34.55 million in Middle Africa, 32.24 million in West
Africa, 30.42 million in East Africa, and 13.20 million in North Africa.
·

Economic Losses (global)

Based on available data, 2022 disasters caused damage amounting to USD 223.84 billion. About 59 percentof the said amount (USD 130.98 billion) was accounted for damage by storms and 20 percent (USD 44.93

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billion) for flood. The EM-DAT data also shows that the damage from 2022 disasters cost more than theannual average damage for the past 30 years, which is USD 121.46 billion. Similarly, storm also caused themost damage from 1992–2021, at approximately USD 53.71 billion or 44 percent of the yearly damage
caused by disasters. Flood, earthquake, drought, and extreme temperature also causes millions of dollars’
worth of damage between 1992 and 2021.

Section 7

Figure 7.5 Economic losses by disaster type 1992–2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

The available data also indicate that for the past 30 years, a huge part of the damage from disasters wasconcentrated in high-income countries (i.e., USA, Japan, China, Germany, Italy, Australia, etc.). About 97
percent of the recorded annual average damage was accounted for seven high-income countries. Some
references pointed out that most of the losses from disasters were higher in high-income countries due to thevaluation of infrastructure and houses, higher costs of living, and damage and losses are easily calculated

since most of them are insured.1
7.1.2

Asian Disaster Data

Historically, there were an average of 90 disasters per year in Asia between 1900 and 2021. During thisperiod, China experienced the most disasters. Other countries with the greatest number of disasters include
India, Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Japan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran.

1

ChristianAid, Counting the Cost 2022: A year of climate breakdown,

https://www.christianaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-12/counting-the-cost-2022.pdf

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Figure 7.6 Trend of natural disaster occurrence in Asia 1900–2022(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

The top 10 countries with the highest number of disaster occurrences in 2022 include Indonesia (20 events),
Philippines (12), China (12), Thailand (11), Viet Nam (8), Afghanistan (8), India (7), Japan (7), Malaysia (6),and Nepal (6).

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Figure 7.7 Top 10 countries in Asia with high occurrence of disasters in 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

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Some of the major disasters that occurred in 2022 include the 5.6-magnitude West Java earthquake in
November, the 7.3-magnitude earthquake in West Sumatra in February, and the floods in Pakistan in January
and October. Several tropical cyclones and earthquakes also struck the Philippines. Meanwhile, China had amajor drought and several instances of earthquakes. Floods and storms also occurred in several areas ofThailand, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Malaysia, India, Japan, and Nepal.
While there were only five disaster events in Pakistan, the three-month flood and flash flood that happened
from June to September is considered one of the worst disasters in Asia in 2022. The disaster affected a totalof 33 million and caused 1,739 deaths. Similarly, in terms of the number of people affected, the flood in
Bangladesh in October also affected about 8.2 million while Typhoon Nalgae affected 7.9 million. China also
experienced drought in September which affected 6.1 million. India’s flood in May also affected 1.3 million.
·

Occurrence (Asia)

A total of 137 disasters occurred in Asia in 2022, which is lower compared to the annual average of 141
between 1992 and 2021 (Figure 7.8). Most types of disasters showed an increasing trend for the past 30
years, except for wildfire which has a decreasing linear trend. Similar to the global trend, flood, storm, andearthquake are the most frequent disasters in Asia from 1992–2021. Disaster occurrence per Asian region in
2022 also followed the trend for the past 30 years. Most of the disasters occurred in Southeast Asia, followedby South, East, West, and Central Asia.

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Figure 7.8 Disaster occurrence in Asia by disaster type 1992–2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022·

Deaths (Asia)

A total of 927,278 disaster-related deaths occurred in Asia between 1992 and 2021, with an annual averageof 30,909. About 58 percent of these numbers were caused by earthquake. Among other disasters thatcaused a high number of deaths for the past 30 years are storm (23 percent), flood (14 percent), extreme
temperature (2 percent), and landslide (2 percent). Most of the disaster-related deaths in Asia were fromSoutheast Asia, South, and Eastern Asia, particularly Indonesia, Myanmar, China, India, Pakistan, and Sri
Lanka. Comparatively, the 2022 figures were significantly lower at 7,550 deaths.

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Figure 7.9 Number of people killed by disaster type in Asia 1992–2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

The causes of most disaster-related deaths in Asia are different from the global trend. In Asia, disasters thatcaused most deaths in 2022 include flood, earthquake, storm, landslide, and extreme temperature. Regionsthat have the most disaster-related deaths in Asia was also slightly different from the 1992–2021 trend.
Majority of death due to disasters came from South Asia, accounting for the effect of the massive flood inPakistan and several disasters in India and Afghanistan. High death incidences were also recorded inSoutheast Asia (1,176), particularly Indonesia and Philippines, and East Asia due to several disasters in
China.
In terms of death per disaster event, earthquake still has the most both for 2022, which is 76 per event and in
the past 30 years, which is 1,055.

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022·

People Affected (Asia)

The 137 disasters which occurred in 2022 affected a total of 64.23 million Asians. South Asia has the greatest
number of disaster-affected, considering the effects of the disasters in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. In
terms of disaster types, flood affected the most in Asia in 2022 (45.82 million). Meanwhile, storm, drought,
and earthquake also had affected a relatively large number of Asian populations.
Comparatively, the affected population in 2022 is less than half of the average number of affected persons
per year for the past 30 years, which is 168.81 million. Meanwhile, East, South, and Southeast Asia had themost affected population during this period. Similarly, flood, drought, storm, earthquake, and extreme
temperature also has the most effects in Asia for the past 30 years.

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Figure 7.10 Number of people affected by disaster type in Asia 1992–2021 vs
2022 (EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)·

Economic Losses (Asia)

Based on EM-DAT data, 2022 disasters in Asia caused about USD 48.75 billion in damages. Flood caused
the most damage at USD 25.53 billion, followed by earthquake (USD 12.19 billion), drought (USD 7.6 billion),and storm (USD 3.42 billion). The total amount of damage in Asia in 2022 is relatively lower than the averageannual damage for the past 30 years, which is USD 52.88 billion. Similar to the global trend, high-income
nations, China and Japan, showed the largest amount of damages incurred for the past 30 years, at 36 and34 percent of the total damage from 1992 to 2021.

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

For 2022 on the other hand, due to the extent of damage brought by the flood, Pakistan was second to havethe most amount of damages, at USD 15 billion. It was next to China whose disasters in 2022 caused USD
16 billion worth of damage.

Figure 7.11 Economic losses by disaster type in Asia 1992–2021 vs 2022
(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)
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7.2

Climate Related Disasters

This section provides an overview of climate-related disasters, particularly those triggered by drought,
extreme temperatures, storms, floods, and wildfire events.
In the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the IPCC, extremes (e.g., temperature extremes, heavy
precipitation, pluvial floods, river floods, droughts, and storms) are highlighted as main Climatic Impact
Drivers (CIDs) that affect an element of society or ecosystems2. Global greenhouse gas emissions havecontinued to increase, rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.
These climatic changes are exacerbated by unsustainable energy use, land-use change, lifestyles, andpatterns of consumption/production across regions, between countries, and among individuals contributing toclimate extremes. Since extremes led to widespread adverse impacts and related losses/damages to natureand people, it helps to know the trend of climate-related disasters.
7.2.1

Global trend in climate-related disasters

Based on the EM-DAT data, climate-related disasters (drought, flood, and storm) have been increasing
globally. Floods were the most prevalent among the three with an average occurrence of 93 per year,
globally, from 1992 until 2021 (Figure 7.12). There was also an annual average of 70 storms and 13
droughts. From 8 disasters per year in the 1940s, the average number of climate-related disasters per year
increased to 290 in the recent decade.
2

IPCC, Climate Change 2023 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers,

https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf

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Figure 7.12 Global trend of climate-related disasters (drought, flood, and storm) 1992–2021(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

As shown in earlier figures, climate-related disasters (i.e., drought, flood, and storm) account for the highest
number of people affected (see Figure 7.4) and economic losses (see Figure 7.5) in 2022. Of the 388 disasteroccurrences recorded globally in 2022, 308 are climate-related disasters. This includes disasters triggered bydrought (23 events), floods (177), and storms (108). Based on EM-DAT, 2022 disaster figures were generally
higher than those from the last 30 years. From 1992 to 2021, there is an average of 16 droughts, 147 floods,
and 100 storms annually. Meanwhile, except for drought, the number of people affected by 2022 climaterelated disasters was less compared to the average number of people affected per year by the same type ofdisasters between 1992 and 2021. The number of people affected by drought is 80 percent more compared tothe annual average from 1992–2021 while people affected by floods and storms were less than 40 and 48

7.2.2

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percent, respectively.
Asian trend in climate-related disasters

Similar to the global trend, the number of climate-related disasters in Asian countries is also increasing. A totalof 98 climate-related disaster events occurred in 25 countries in 2022, almost 32 percent of the total climaterelated disaster events globally. This is composed of the massive drought in China, 69 floods, including thosein Pakistan and Indonesia, and 28 storms. Relative to past trends, disasters triggered by droughts and storms
occurred less in 2022. However, there were more floods in 2022 compared to the average number of floods
per year from 1992 to 2021. On average, there were about four droughts, 60 floods, and 41 storms per year in
Asia between 1992 and 2021(Figure 7.13). Yet, fewer were affected by these disasters in 2022 compared tothe average number of affected populations per year between 1992 and 2021.

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NATURAL DISASTER DATABOOK 2022

Figure 7.13 Trend of climate-related disasters (drought, flood, and storm) in Asia 1992–2021(EM-DAT/CRED, 2023)

Based on records, there were also fewer deaths and displaced populations in 2022 compared to the annual
average for the past 30 years. Flood remains to be the most devastating disaster as it affected and displaced
the most population compared to drought and storms. Meanwhile, storms have the greatest number of
average deaths per year compared to floods and droughts. 2022 figures are almost similar to the 30-year
trend. Of all the disaster the occurred in Asia in 2022, flood is the most frequent (see Figure 7.8) with the mostdevastating impacts showing the highest number of people killed (see Figure 7.9), affecting more people (seeFigure 7.10), and causing severe economic losses (see Figure 7.11).
Section 7

7.3

COVID-19 Data

Using data from the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 Dashboard3, this section presents an
overview of the cumulative data on the confirmed number of cases and deaths since WHO’s declaration of
the pandemic on 11 March 2020. It also shows the situation globally and in ADRC member countries.
7.3.1

Global Situation

While there have been multiple occurrences of upward trends in the number of confirmed cases since thestart of the pandemic, the major upward trends in 2022 were recorded in January, March, July, andDecember. The highest number of confirmed cases for 2022 was reported on 19 December wherein a total of
44.20 million confirmed cases were reported on a single day (Figure 7.14). Ninety percent of the drastic
increase in the number was from the Western Pacific region and four percent came from Europe (2 percent)and the Americas (2 percent). A notable increase was also observed in China in December due to an
Omicron subvariant. At least eight other Omicron subvariants have been identified in 2022. Omicronsubvariants are recognized to be transmitted more rapidly compared to other variants. However, the huge
surge of cases in December 2022 was immediately followed by a drastic decline of cases. So, in the firstquarter of 2023 many countries started lifting COVID-19 restrictions and slowly opened their borders.

3WHO, COVID-19 Dashboard, https://covid19.who.int/

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Figure 7.14 Global situation of COVID-19 as of July 2023 (WHO, 2023)

7.3.2

COVID-19 Situation in ADRC Member Countries

By the end of 2022, China has the greatest cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at 84.93 million.
This was followed by India with 44.68 million, Japan with 29.11 million, the Republic of Korea with 29.06
million, and the Russian Federation with 21.80 million (Figure 7.15). Several ADRC member countries havemore than doubled the number of confirmed cases from 2021 figures. The highest jump in the number ofconfirmed cases was from China whose cumulative number of confirmed cases ballooned from 132,071 as of
31 December 2021 to 84.93 million as of 31 December 2022. Other increasing cases included the Republic ofKorea (from 635,250 to 29.06 million), Bhutan (2,660 to 62,531), Japan (from 1.73 million to 29.11 million),
Singapore (279,405 to 2.21 million), Vietnam (1.73 to 11.53 million), and Thailand (2.22 million to 4.72
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million).

Figure 7.15 COVID-19 cases in ADRC member countries as of 31 December 2022 (WHO, 2023)

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Meanwhile, India remained to have the highest number of COVID-related deaths among ADRC member
countries at 530,702 as of 31 December 2022. This was followed by the Russian Federation (393,712
deaths), Indonesia (160,612), Iran (144,682), Türkiye (101,419), and Philippines (65,397). In terms of theincreased number of deaths from 2021, China also had the largest increase in the cumulative number ofdeaths due to COVID-19 among ADRC member countries. It increased from 5,699 to 52,544. COVID-related
deaths in Bhutan, Republic of Korea, Japan, and Singapore also increased drastically by more than 100
percent. Meanwhile, Myanmar, Cambodia, Nepal, Kazakhstan, and Bangladesh’s number of deaths for 2022
is less than 5 percent of 2021’s. However, it should be noted that the mentioned figures depend on thepolicies and the number of COVID-19 tests conducted in each country.

Section 7

Figure 7.16 ADRC member countries with the highest increase in the number of deaths by 2022

Consider the situation as of December 2022 (Figure 7.18), COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed inseveral ADRC member countries, allowing more lenient policies on movement domestically. As early as 2ndquarter, India and South Korea have already lifted some of their domestic restrictions. South Korea also

resumed its visa-free travels as early as March 2022. 4Japan also removed its cap on foreign travelers andalso resumed its visa-free travels during the last quarter of 2022.5 Towards mid-2023, almost all countries in
Asia opened their borders.

4Choi, S (2022. April 15). South Korea to lift most COVID curbs next week as Omicron wanes.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skorea-lift-most-covid-curbs-next-week-yonhap-2022-04-14/
5Akiyama, H. (2022, September 14). Japan set to announce restart of visa-free tourist travel. Nikkei Asia.

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Figure 7.17 COVID-19 Situation in ADRC member countries as of December 2022.

Moreover, with the relaxation of the COVID-19 restrictions, vaccination became a priority in ADRC member
countries. All ADRC member countries already had at least two vaccines administered by 2022. However,
only three countries provided data on the cumulative number of vaccine doses administered in 2022 –Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan. Based on reported data, there are about 3.85 trillion doses of vaccines
administered in four ADRC member countries as of the 1st quarter of 2023 – China, Mongolia, Philippines,
and Türkiye.
Section 779