Over 11.5m children vaccinated in 13 districts

LAHORE: Punjab has wrapped a week-long special polio campaign in 13 districts of Punjab, which was aimed at building immunity of children in high-risk districts.

On Sunday, polio teams visited house-to-house and vaccinated leftover children who had missed polio drops in the last one week due to various reasons. A large number of guests and missed children were vaccinated in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad districts.

In the last six days of the campaign, polio teams have vaccinated more than 11.5 million children in 13 districts. In Lahore, more than two million children have been vaccinated. In Rawalpindi and Faisalabad, 0.9 million and 1.5 million children have been vaccinated. In a statement, Khizer Afzaal Chaudhry asserted that all objectives of the campaign have been achieved. He reiterated that the government aimed to build immunity of children through the campaign so that polio virus transmission was interrupted. The EOC head called on polio teams to focus on children belonging to high-risk mobile communities. The polio programme head cautioned that virus could spread with the movement of mobile and high-risk communities. EOC head Khizer stressed that Pakistan was working on stopping polio virus transmission in 2023 and emphasised that two drops of polio vaccine every campaign was the correct decision made by parents.

Earlier, PSL franchise Lahore Qalandars organized a ceremony in Qaddafi Stadium during innings break to show their support for polio teams. During the ceremony Lahore Qalandars players posed for a group photograph. The Qalandars captain fast bowler Shaheen Afridi administered polio drops to children. He was joined by Afghan spin wizard Rashid Khan and all-rounder David Wiese. The ceremony was dedicated to Pakistan and Afghanistan polio teams which are battling against the virus in the last remaining two polio endemic countries on globe.