6,000 polio supervisors trained

LAHORE: The Punjab polio programme has completed first phase of polio supervisory trainings ahead of the sub-national polio campaign starting from January 24.

As per a handout released by the Punjab polio programme here on Monday, trainings of over 6,000 officials at the district, union council and area level workers, has been completed. Over 240 sessions were held in health facilities, government schools and colleges using ‘stall methodology’. The methodology has been introduced to boost learning of the supervisors and hold trickle down trainings to the frontline workers in an amicable way.

The supervisors were given a refresher on the Covid SOPs, the disease and its preventions, global and national polio updates and cold chain maintenance. The second round of the trickle-down trainings to frontline polio workers is in full swing now and will continue throughout the current week. As part of the second phase, over 54,000 polio field workers will be trained ahead of the drive, the handout read. The sub-national drive or the SNID will be held in nine districts of Punjab which include Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Muzaffargarh, RY Khan, DG Khan, Rajanpur, Faisalabad and Mianwali. In Mianwali, meanwhile, the polio eradication drive will be held in selected union councils of the district only.

The government’s leadership and the hard work of polio teams have given fruitful results. Punjab has not reported any polio case for over 14 months now. Environmental samples also indicate a promising epidemiological outlook for polio eradication.