ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi visited a slum in F-6 alongside polio vaccination teams in order to inspect the vaccination campaign that began on Monday.

Dr Alvi was initially going to inaugurate the vaccination campaign at the Presidency and then administer the vaccine to children in Staff Colony, Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication National Coordinator Dr Rana Mohammad Safdar told Dawn.

However, he decided to visit a slum to see how the children would be vaccinated, Dr Safdar said.

“We left it to the president’s security staff to choose the slum; we were informed about it at the last moment, which was why we and the president reached simultaneously,” he added.

He said the president directed that the momentum of the vaccination campaigns should not slow down, as a final push is needed to eradicate the poliovirus.

“Minister of National Health Services (NHS) Aamer Mehmood Kiani also administered the polio vaccine to some children and directed that not a single child would be missed during the campaign,” Dr Safdar said.

Islamabad Chief Commissioner Joudat Ayaz also visited the National Emergency Operations Centre at the National Institute of Health and inaugurated the vaccination campaign by vaccinating children.

He said nearly 332,000 children under the age of five are being targeted for vaccination in Islamabad by more than 3,000 teams and 500 supervisors, apart from senior district administration and health staff. The children will be administered polio drops as well as vitamin A capsules to boost immunity.

Mr Ayaz was accompanied by Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqat and Focal Person for Polio Campaign Additional Deputy Commissioner Dr Mohammad Asif Raheem.

They were told by the centre’s team that the last government had established a taskforce to coordinate between Rawalpindi and Islamabad that has become dysfunctional. It was suggested that coordination between the administrations of the twin cities be increased.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2018