MULTAN:In order to prevent polio virus reinfection, Punjab on Monday rolled out first national immunization 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 Rawalpind while in rest of Punjab the drive will last for five days, said a press release issued here.
For monitoring of performance of districts in implementation of the campaign, head of the polio programe and Punjab Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator, Khizer Afzaal Chaudhary paid surprise visits to Faisalabad, Khushab and Sargodha today.
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.