7-day National Immunisation Campaign starts from Jan 16.

LAHORE -- A 7-day National Immunisation campaign will commence from January 16 to 22 in Punjab.

Punjab Health Minister Dr Akhtar Malik and Secretary Primary and Secondary Healthcare department (P and SHD) Dr Irshad Ahmad inaugurated the campaign by administering polio drops to children at the office of P and SHD, on Friday.

The Health Minister, while talking to the media said that in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad, the campaign would continue for seven days, with two days dedicated to reaching Not Available Children.

He said that more than 199,000 polio workers would participate in the drive to immunise 22.54 million children under the age of five against polio. This included: 16,292 area in-charges, 3,951 union council supervisors, 84,579 mobile team members, 4,853 fixed team members and 2,652 transit team members, he added.

He said that Punjab Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) had deployed stakeholders from all areas to facilitate preparedness and implementation of the polio campaign in priority areas.

He said that although Punjab was free of polio since October 2020, but recent sewage sample results from Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur and Sialkot had been of concern. The re-emergence of the virus in sewage samples must send an urgent message to parents to ensure that children were administered two polio drops under every...