<span style="color: #222222;">Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharati Pawar today said that despite significant progress, South-East Asia Region as a whole, has missed the 2020 milestones of the End TB strategy. She added that it may also miss the 2022 coverage targets unless immediate remedial action is taken. She was addressing the inaugural session of World Health Organization South-East Asia Region High-Level Meeting for Renewed TB Response.<br />''<br />''She said that the region needs to scale up preventive, diagnostic and treatment services. The Minister highlighted the need to substantially strengthen social protection measures including addressing undernutrition among TB vulnerable populations.<br />''<br />''The Minister said that development of new diagnostics, vaccines and drugs needs to be accelerated and digital technology, Artificial Intelligence and other innovations should be used to advance TB response.<br />''<br />''Highlighting the impact of COVID-19 on TB, Dr Pawar said, that in just a few months, the pandemic has reversed years of progress made in the fight against Tuberculosis. She also said that the pandemic has also allowed us a huge set of learnings that would help in our TB elimination efforts.</span><br />