During the five-day drive starting from June 27, around two million children under five years of age will be administered anti-polio drops. As many as 6,360 teams have been formed for the purpose. Chattha said that union council monitoring officers and area in-charges would perform duties in the field to make polio drive a success. He said that all district officers and assistant commissioners would monitor the drive in their respective tehsil. He urged parents to get their children administered with anti-polio drops to protect them from lifelong disability. “Polio-free Lahore is our mission,” he said. The deputy commissioner warned that no one would be allowed to show careless attitude towards the campaign. He said that immunization of every child below five years of age would be ensured.
WEEK-LONG ANTI-POLIO
CAMPAIGN IN PUNJAB FROM 27TH
The anti-polio campaign will begin in seven districts of the province from June 27. Provincial Minister Khwaja Salman Rafique and Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal jointly presided over a meeting to review the arrangements for the campaign at the Civil Secretariat here on Saturday.
The meeting was informed that 5.08 million children up to the age of five years would be vaccinated during the campaign. The drive will continue till July 3 in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Dera Ghazi Khan, Bahawalpur, Layyah and Mianwali districts. More than 39,000 polio workers will perform their duties during the campaign.
Rafique directed the authorities concerned to make the anti-polio campaign a success. He said that the country must be made polio-free. “For complete eradication of polio, everyone needs to continue working with national spirit.”
The chief secretary directed the deputy commissioners to personally monitor the anti-polio drive in their districts. 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 in which 22.1 million children were given vaccination against the target of 21.9 million. Since October 2020, no case of polio has been reported.
Earlier, Punjab Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator Syedah Ramallah Ali has directed the district health administrations to focus on conducting quality campaigns so that immunity of children is boosted and they are protected against the crippling virus. Chairing a readiness meeting with the health administrations of seven districts where polio eradication campaign has been planned from Monday, she said that the campaign will go a long way in building immunity and help children fight the virus. “All the union councils which have been included in the campaign are at high risk. The districts need to ensure campaign quality in all the union councils,” she directed.
The head of the polio programme highlighted the importance of vaccination of children on the move and said that teams need to be alert on the transit points. “The transit points have been set up to ensure ring fencing of children against the polio virus. Parents need to cooperate with teams deployed at the transit points”, the Punjab polio programme head stressed.
