LAHORE (Dunya News) – The Punjab is launching a polio drive on Monday (today) to vaccinate 13.9million children against the deadly ailment, with polio teams will go door-to-door to administer polio drops.
The campaign which will be rolled out in 15 districts of the province is being labelled as a key step towards blocking local polio virus circulation.
Districts include Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Attock, Chakwal, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Multan, DG Khan, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Sheikhupura, Okara and Gujranwala.
In Lahore, Rawlapindi and Faisalabad, the campaign will last seven days while in rest of the districts, campaign will continue for five days only.
In all districts, last two days of the campaign will be allocated to cover the leftover children.
Training of all teams has been wrapped up, experts deployed to monitor the campaign, vaccine and other logistics have been delivered to the districts.
In order to implement a quality campaign, Punjab polio micro-plans have been reconstituted to encompass high risk migrant and mobile populations.
Polio teams have been directed to knock at every door to ensure vaccination of every child, including the newborn, especially in areas inhabited by the priority communities.
As per instructions issued, even if teams’ previous record suggests that there is zero child in the house, the teams will need to knock at the door and double-check the availability of guest children.
Special focus has been put on improving the capacity of polio teams by imparting quality trainings.