TAXILA: Around 300,000 children of under five will be administered polio vaccines across Attock district during a five-day campaign being launched from June 7.

“The five-day polio vaccination drive should be conducted under strict preventive measures for Covid-19”.

This was sated by Deputy Commissioner Attock Ali Anan Qamar while chairing a meeting in this context in Attock on Saturday.

He urged that a ‘no touch’ vaccination method should be adopted so that distance is maintained between the front line worker and child.

He said health department teams must ensure that polio drops were administered to all children between the ages of one to five, adding parents must cooperate with the teams to make the campaign a success.

The health officials informed that as many as 1.100 teams have been constituted; they will be present at all entry and exit points of the city, bus stands, railway stations, hospitals and health centres.

They further revealed that 100 fixed teams and 35 transit teams have been constituted.

According to the World Health Organisation, Punjab has reported 14 polio cases in 2020.

He said adequate security measures have been adopted by the government to protect the anti-polio teams who would visit door-to-door to achieve their target. He said a large number of well-equipped cops of district police were deployed with different anti-polio teams.

The sources in the health department said the campaign was launched on the directives of provincial authorities after a vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (VDPV2) case emerged in the district on July 12 last year.

The drive was initially for five days to administer polio drops to 296,662 children across the district under the supervision of representatives from provincial and federal health authorities and the World Health Organisation.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2021