The impact of COVID-19 and the restoration of tuberculosis services in the Western Pacific Region (revised).

We read with great interest the papers by Tadolini et al. , Stochino et al. and Min Ong et al. , which reported issues related to COVID-19 and tuberculosis (TB) [1–3]. The response to COVID-19, especially the lockdown of the entire society, is likely to cause severe disruption of TB programmes [4–7]. Reduced TB case notifications have been reported from the top three high TB burden countries worldwide, raising concerns of un-interrupted TB transmission and increased TB mortality, thus posing the threat of derailing achievements made so far [4–7]. Furthermore, the process of post-lockdown restoration of TB services matters [7]. A slow restoration course may continue decreasing TB case finding as compared to a more rapid restoration time. While COVID-19 has imposed great challenges to national tuberculosis programmes, it has also created opportunities to develop innovative strategies to ensure continuity of TB services and ultimately to strengthen TB care, prevention and control.