Over 76K children covered on Day 1 of pulse polio drive

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 19

The three-day long pulse polio drive started by the district Health Department with more than 76,946 children aged between 0 to 5 years administered polio drops at 699 polio booths established in the district. Notably, the department has set up a target of administering polio drops to 1.53 lakh children.

The polio drive was started by Deputy Commissioner B Srinivasan at Beant Nagar Urban Primary Health Centre by administering polio drops to a child. Civil Surgeon Dr Amrik Singh Sandhu and District Immunisation Officer Kundan Kumar Pal and Urban Nodal Officer Dr Pamil Bansal were also present at the occasion.

Civil Surgeon said, “There are 1,53,649 children aged 0 to 5 years in the district and to cover them under the drive as many as 699 polio booths, 32 transit polio booths, 29 mobile teams and 1,247 door-to-door teams have been constituted.”

The DC exhorted everyone to extend full cooperation to the Health Department in making the drive a success. More than 50 per cent of total children have been covered on the first day of the drive while the rest would be covered through door-to-door campaign in the coming two days.

Dr Sandhu exhorted everyone that they must get their children administered with polio drops at designated booths. “No matter if a child has fever, dysenteries or had taken medicines, polio drops must be administered to him/her. The three-day long drive that started on Sunday will continue till January 21,” he said.