Seven-day anti-polio campaign to begin on Aug 2 despite lockdown

Like the rest of Pakistan, a seven-day anti-polio campaign will be launched in Sindh on August 2 despite the Covid-19 lockdown. In this special polio campaign, a total of 7.4 million children will be vaccinated against poliovirus in 22 districts of the province.

An important meeting of the provincial task force on polio eradication was held at the Sindh Secretariat on Friday under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah.

The chief secretary said that no case of polio had fortunately been reported in Sindh during the last one year. The health authorities told the meeting that 535,111 surgical masks and 63,643 bottles of hand sanitisers had been provided to the polio workers keeping in view the prevailing situation of Covid-19.

More than 50,000 polio workers in 22 districts of the province would be part of the anti-polio campaign. The meeting was told that special attention would be paid to the Karachi division where 32 health camps would also be set up in different localities.

The chief secretary directed the deputy commissioners of Sindh to achieve the target of 100 per cent coverage in the anti-polio campaign as their performances in this regard would be reflected in their annual evaluation reports. He also appealed to the parents to cooperate with the anti-polio workers and vaccinate their children of up-to-five years.

He added that the role of social mobilisers and influencers should be made more effective to persuade the parents who previously refused administration of anti-polio drops to their children.

Shah clarified that the campaign would not be affected due to the lockdown. He said that due to the lockdown, parents and children would be at home and so carrying out the campaign during this time would be more effective.

The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary Home Qazi Shahid Pervez, Health Secretary Kazim Jatoi, Local Government Secretary Syed Najam Shah, Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Provincial Coordinator Fayyaz Abbasi, representatives of PPHI and Unicef. All the commissioners and deputy commissioners attended the meeting through video link.