ISLAMABAD: Declaring 31 districts of Pakistan high risk for Covid-19, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has joined hands with the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) to inoculate children over the age of 12 at their doorsteps.

Moreover, EPI has finalised arrangements to vaccinate 40 million children up to the age of five against polio across the country. The three-day polio campaign will begin on Dec 10 (today) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and on Dec 13 in other parts of the country.

According to a document, available with Dawn, the Covid-19 vaccine will be administered in 11 districts of Punjab, 10 districts of Sindh, nine districts of KP and in one district of Balochistan.

It shows that there are 62 million vaccine-eligible people in 11 districts of Punjab including Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Sialkot, Muzaffargarh, Sargodha, Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan.

Over 25 million vaccine-eligible people are in 10 districts of Sindh including central, east, south, west, Kaemari, Korangi, Malir, Hyderabad, Khairpur and Sanghar.

Over eight million people are in nine districts of KP including Mardan, Peshawar, Swat, Swabi, D.I. Khan, Charsadda, Mansehra, Nowshera and Abbottabad. Quetta is the only district of Balochistan where 2.6 million people are vaccine-eligible.

According to a statement, during the campaign, children will receive a supplementary dose of vitamin-A capsules along with the polio vaccine. The polio programme will also facilitate the process of Covid-19 vaccination.

Children between the ages of 12 to 18 will receive the Pfizer vaccine while Sinovac will be administrated to the 18-plus population in 31 high-risk districts identified by the NCOC. The NCOC and health expert committee have already approved both vaccines.

While launching the campaign, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said current gains demand substantial and sustained efforts to further boost the progress achieved over the years, towards polio eradication. The programme will reach every eligible child with the polio vaccine to solidify this progress. Parents should open their doors to polio workers and get their children vaccinated.

“After protecting their precious children under five from polio, the parents and all children over 12 years should then go to one of the more than 13,000 temporary vaccine sites for vaccination and protection of themselves against the Covid-19 disease,” Dr Sultan said.

More than 290,000 frontline health workers will go house-to-house for vaccination ensuring children’s protection from the deadly poliovirus. Among other health issues, unfortunately, more than 50pc of children in Pakistan have a vitamin-A deficiency, which exposes them to various other diseases, including diarrhoea, pneumonia, measles and night blindness.

Adding a dose of vitamin-A in the immunisation campaign will contribute towards improving immunity of these vulnerable children.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries left with the poliovirus. Unvaccinated children on both sides of the border are at imminent risk.

“We are aware of the risks of cross-border circulation of the virus between the two countries and we are now focused more on further strengthening our robust mechanisms and strategies to address the issue,” said Dr Shahzad Baig, coordinator of the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative.

“The programme will ensure that the upcoming immunisation campaign achieves all its targets while also taking steps to monitor cross border movement and enhancing security for health workers in high-risk areas, as well as supporting the Covid-19 vaccination drive,” he added.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2021