LAHORE: The anti-polio campaign will start in 14 districts of Punjab from October 24. The drive will continue for seven days in the high-risk districts of Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad while it will conclude after five days in the other 11 districts - Mianwali, Khushab, Sialkot, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Layya, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rahim Yar Khan, Der Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur.
The special campaign for polio eradication is aimed at vaccinating 11.18 million children up to the age of five years, with deployment of more than 97,000 polio workers.
To review the arrangements in this connection with the campaign, a meeting of the provincial taskforce for polio eradication was held at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday.
Chief Secretary Punjab Abdullah Khan Sumbal, Secretary Health Dr Irshad Ahmad and representatives of international organizations working for polio eradication attended the meeting while Provincial Health Minister Dr Akhtar Malik and deputy commissioners of the respective districts participated through video link.Speaking on the occasion, Provincial Health Minister Akhtar Malik said that the country would be made polio-free for the health and safe future of children. He said that special arrangements must be made for the anti-polio campaign in flood-affected areas.
Chief Secretary Abdullah Khan Sumbal asked the deputy commissioners to personally monitor the anti-polio drive, besides paying special attention to the coverage of the “missed children”.
He said that everyone needs to continue working with national spirit for the complete eradication of polio. He also appreciated the cooperation of international organizations in efforts to eradicate polio.
Briefing the meeting, Secretary Primary Health Dr Irshad Ahmad said that the coverage ratio in the August anti-polio campaign was 103 percent as 2.26 million children were given polio vaccine against the set target of 2.19 million. He maintained that no case of polio had been reported in Punjab since October 2020.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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