LAHORE: All environmental samples collected throughout the province during the month of March tested negative for polio virus.

This was claimed at a meeting of the Provincial Task Force for Polio Eradication at the Civil Secretariat here on Friday.

Finalising a new roadmap for maintaining a virus-free environment, provincial health minister Khwaja Imran Nazir characterised negative results as a major achievement for the government’s health initiatives.

He said the province had been mobilised to eliminate the disease at its roots.

The chief secretary asked the health department and district authorities to maintain coordination. The deputy commissioners were instructed to supervise the campaign within their respective jurisdictions to ensure that every child should be reached and no refusals or missed cases.

Providing a technical briefing on the upcoming drive, Polio Program in-charge Adeel Tasawar said a target had been set to vaccinate over 23.3 million children across the province. He said some 200,000 front line workers would be deployed to achieve the target.

He said the campaign would be run for seven days in Lahore and four days in other districts. All divisional and deputy commissioners attended the meeting via video-link.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2026