1.68L kids to be covered under polio drive

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 17

The Department of Health and Family Welfare took out a polio awareness rally in Gurdaspur on Friday.

The rally was flagged off by Civil Surgeon Dr Kishan Chand in the presence of District Immunisation Officer Dr Arvind Kumar Manchanda and other programme officers.

Dr Kishan said: “The three-day national polio round will start on January 19 and children in the age group of 0-5 years will be immunized.”

He said no case of polio had been reported in India since 2011. “We need to be careful against polio as more than 130 cases in Pakistan and 26 cases in Afghanistan have been reported in 2019,” the Civil Surgeon said.

Dr Kishan said: “Officials must ensure that no child is deprived of polio drops and they must cover all urban and rural localities, including high-risk areas”.

District Immunisation Officer Dr Arvind said: “The department will cover 1,68,296 children in the age group of 0-5 years in the district. As many as 1,312 fixed booths, 1,709 house-to-house teams, 4,052 vaccinators and 257 supervisors have been deputed for monitoring and functioning of the drive.”

He said, “Our teams will cover migratory sites like brick kilns, nomads and construction sites in the district. Our objective is to achieve 100 per cent vaccination in the district.”