Countrywide anti-polio drive starts today

Islamabad: The year’s first nationwide polio vaccination drive is scheduled to start from Monday to vaccinate 39.6 million children under the age of five years across the country.

The vaccination drive will continue from February 17-21.

According to an official of National Emergency Operations Centre, during the campaign, over 265,000 front line polio workers would go street to street and knock at every door to protect Pakistani children against the crippling virus.

Reportedly, more than 39.6 million children below the age of five will be administered anti-polio drops.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 6.7 million children under the age of five years will be administered vaccine.

In the vaccination drive 19.9 million children will be administered polio vaccine in Punjab, 9.26 million children in Sindh and 2.46 mln children in Baluchistan.

In Islamabad 3,56,000 children, Azad Kashmir 6,90,000 children and in Gilgit-Baltistan 2,40,000 children under the age of five years will be administered vaccine.

Secretary General United Nations will also administer police vaccine to children in Lahore on February 18.

According to reports overall count of polio cases across the country had reached 134 in 2019 with 91 cases in KP, 24 cases in Sindh, eight in Punjab and 11 in Balochistan.

The total number of polio cases in the year 2019-20 has reached more than 144 in the country. In the new year so far 17 polio cases have been reported across the country.