Polio drive only in high-risk zones

Our Correspondent

Gurugram, September 19

Owing to the rising Covid numbers, the Gurugram administration has restricted the pulse polio drive to high-risk zones only.

The Health Department will start the pulse polio campaign for three days from Sunday. Polio vaccine will be given at booths on Sunday while home-to-home campaign will be on Monday and Tuesday.

The Health Department has reduced its target by 70 per cent due to Covid. However, it might be difficultfor the department to complete the target of 30 per cent in three days.

As per officials, this time the department will provide polio vaccine to only 80,000 children while it was administered to 3 lakh children earlier. The Health Department reduced the target because most of their employees were busy with Covid duty.

Dr Virender Yadav, Chief Medical Officer, said: “All preparations for the polio drive have been completed and employees have also been deployed. However, this time the target has been reduced to 30 per cent due to Covid. Polio drops will be given only in the high-risk areas.”

The Health Department identified 550 booths in the high-risk zones, where polio vaccine will be administered to children from 9 to 5 pm. Under this campaign, 2,000 health officials will be on duty to achieve 30 per cent target of polio vaccine.