5.08m children to be vaccinated: Anti-polio campaign in Punjab from tomorrow

LAHORE: The anti-polio campaign will begin in seven districts of Punjab from tomorrow (Monday). The target for the campaign is to vaccinate 5.08 million children up to the age of five years.

The drive will continue by July 3 in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Layyah and Mianwali, with more than 39,000 polio workers performing duties.

To review the arrangements for the campaign, Provincial Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique and Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal jointly presided over a meeting at the Civil Secretariat on Saturday.

The meeting was attended by special secretary health, representatives of international organizations working for polio eradication and officials concerned while all the divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners participated through video link.

Provincial Minister Khawaja Salman Rafique directed the authorities to make the anti-polio campaign a complete success. He said that the country must be made polio free for the health and safe future of children. He said that for complete eradication of polio, everyone needs to continue working with national spirit.

The Chief Secretary Punjab directed the deputy commissioners to monitor the anti-polio drive themselves in the districts. He said that door-to-door polio teams could play an important role in raising awareness about dengue and Covid-19.

He said that polio teams must inform the people about the precautionary measures against dengue and Covid-19. The secretary primary health gave a briefing to the meeting. It was informed that the coverage rate in the anti-polio campaign completed in May was 101 percent and 22.1 million children were inoculated against the target of 21.9 million. From October 2020, Punjab have not reported any case of polio.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022