QUETTA: Arrangements have been finalised to administer anti-polio vaccine to around 2.4 million children in Balochistan province during a three-day campaign, an Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) official said on Sunday.
“The drive in which anti-polio and Vitamin-A vaccines will be administered to children under the age of five will begin from Monday,” said EOC official Syed Faisal Ahmed.
“Under the initiative, 9,764 teams will be deployed province-wide in addition to 890 fixed sites and 499 transit points,” he said.
Frontier Corps (FC), police and Levies will provide security during the vaccination.
Besides these efforts, the official added, religious scholars will assist the authorities in convincing parents to let the staff administer the vaccines to their children.
Ahmed said that sewage samples from Killa Abdullah and Quetta to check the virus came positive.
“We have achieved major goals in combating polio disease but we still need to strive to declare Pakistan a polio-free country,” he maintained.
This year, Afghanistan has reported 11 cases of the virus with cross border population posing a serious threat to Pakistan. Five polio cases have been reported in the country so far this year.
