Anti-polio campaign kicks off in Multan

MULTAN: A five-day anti-polio campaign began here on Monday. In this connection, Sehat Muhafiz polio eradication teams of the Health Department administered polio drops to the children during their door-to-door campaign. Meanwhile, talking to journalists here, the Punjab Emergency Operation Coordinator Dr Munir Ahmad said that the polio teams had achieved nearly 40 per cent target which was set for the first day of the campaign. The rest of the children would be vaccinated during the next four days of the campaign, he added. Dr Munir Ahmad said that Multan had a special significance in the fight against polio. He said that administering polio drops to the children under five years of age was a big challenge. A polio case had been reported at Lodhran in the beginning of 2017 and positive environmental samples at Rawalpindi and Multan highlighted the need to reach out to all children, he added. Meanwhile, while talking to journalists, Punjab Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare Khawaja Imran Nazirsaid that all the children under five years of age would be administered anti-polio drops at Dera Ghazi Khan, Lahore, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Rajanpur, Rawalpindi, Rahimyar Khan and Sheikhupura. The minister said that the campaign was a part of the government efforts to provide protection to the children. Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Secretary Ali Jan Khan urged the parents to administer polio drops to their children during the campaign. He told that not a single polio case was reported in Punjab in 2017.

Multan-Lahore Motorway: The Multan-Lahore Motorway will be fully functional and open for traffic in April 2018. The traveling distance from Lahore to Multan was five hours, which would be reduced to three hours after opening of the motorway, the National Highway officials said. The officials said that the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway would also completed by August 2018 and for the benefit of the public the eastern bypass from Kalasha Kaku would also be opened before completion of the motorway. The work on Faisalabad-Multan Motorway is continues with full swing, they added. The motorway was divided into six sections.