At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic many countries found that they lacked basic, timely data for decision making—such as information on health workforce, resources, hospitalisations, and mortality. Many policy makers have since leveraged COVID-19 related information system reforms in a way that may also address long-standing barriers in the structures, policies and institutions that have kept countries from fully utilising health related data. Health data governance reforms, in particular, have been an important aspect of countries responses. Improvements in the quality, coverage, completeness, and capacity for data sharing in regard to existing national personal health datasets were widely reported. Countries have also made significant investments in digital tools, systems for public health monitoring, assessments of resource use and availability, and data to monitor the status of non-COVID related health needs.