Daily Times

In order to prevent polio virus reinfection, Punjab on Monday rolled out first national immunisation drive (NID) against polio which is first campaign of 2022.

The province aims to reach out and vaccinate more than 20.54 million children in the five-day drive which will go on till January 22 in mega districts like Lahore, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi while in rest of Punjab the drive will last for five days, said a press release.

For monitoring of performance of districts in implementation of the campaign, head of the polio programme and Punjab Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator, Khizer Afzaal Chaudhary paid surprise visits to Faisalabad, Khushab and Sargodha.

During the monitoring mission, the EOC head visited hospitals, nomadic as well as priority community settlements and transit points.

Talking to polio teams and officials, the EOC head emphasized on improving quality of campaign and called for leaving no child behind without vaccine. Head of the polio programme expressed his satisfaction that for two years Punjab was polio free but cautioned that the success against virus could be short-lived. He underlined that in order to save children from paralysis multiple dozes of polio vaccine were required. So vaccination of all children in every campaign was mandatory, Khizer stressed.

The EOC head met with polio teams in Allied Hospital Faisalabad and administered polio drops. He inquired polio teams about their challenges and pledged to provide every support.

Meanwhile, the five-day anti polio campaign started across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid strict security measures. The vaccination drive which was started simultaneously in Malakand, Kurram, Dir, Swat, Kohat, Peshawar, Charsadda, DI Khan, Parachinar, Orakzai and merged districts as part of measures to make the province polio-free.

In district Malakand as many as 12603 security personnel were deployed for protection of the polio teams, said Sajjad Khan Regional Police Officer Malakand. He said that peaceful conduct of the five-day anti-polio campaign was the priority of the district police, adding that during the anti-polio campaign, police pickets had been installed throughout the division and orders had also been issued to keep an eye on suspicious persons.

He further said that a total of 12603 police officers and officials were working with polio teams across the division, 3342 in Swat district, 1163 in Buner district, 1286 in Shangla district, 2263 in Lower Dir district, 2263 in Upper Dir district. 1574, 533 in Upper Chitral district, 900 in Lower Chitral district and 1542 in Bajaur district have been posted on security duty.

During the polio campaign, blockades have been set up on internal, external routes and main highways across the division to keep a watchful eye on suspicious persons.

It should be noted that Malakand Regional Police Officer Sajjad Khan himself visited different areas of Swat district while reviewing the security arrangements and also administered polio drops to the children. He issued a message to the parents asking them to cooperate with the anti-polio teams and administer polio drops to their children up to 5 years of age.