Lahore has been declared a polio-free city, for the first time in the last three years, Lahore’s Deputy Commissioner Muddassir Riaz Malik revealed on Monday. The provincial metropolitan was last declared virus-free in June 2018. Deputy Commissioner Malik said that by the grace of Allah and efforts of our brave polio teams, cooperation of our parents and intense work from the whole administration, Lahore is Polio Free as all 5 environmental samples stand negative now. He further added that we must all work together to maintain this landmark achievement and continue to vaccinate our children.
As per the details, all the five environmental samples obtained from Lahore turned out to be negative for the very first time since June 2018. Three samples were obtained from Outfall Road and one each from Gulshan-e-Ravi and Multan Road. The samples were sent to National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad and the report declared Lahore as a polio free city. The observers were quick to give credit of this landmark achievement to the incumbent Commissioner Lahore, Captain retired Usman, who was earlier serving as the Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare department when the campaign against the virus was in full swing. It is worth mentioning here that the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC)had called to put the campaign on hold earlier, but the health department with the support of district administration continued the rigorous campaign while following the SOPs which reaped fruitful results. Talking to Daily Times, Syed Hammad Raza, spokesperson to health department said that the milestone was achieved due to the collective efforts of all the concerned departments. “Random Sampling was carried out by our teams and now we can confidently claim that Lahore is polio free,” said health department spokesperson.