In 2020, due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, the number of newly diagnosed tuberculosis (TB) case notifications saw a big drop from 2019 while the number of people who died from TB increased due to reduced access to services at global, regional and country levels.1 Bangladesh (218 per 100 000 population) and Pakistan (259 per 100 000 population) are among the 16 countries that contributed most to the global shortfall of TB notifications yet they are still on the WHO high-burden countries lists for TB and multidrug-resistant TB or rifampicin-resistant TB.