40K kids administered polio drops on Day 1 in Amritsar district

Amritsar, June 19

The district Health Department started the three-day pulse polio immunisation drive by flagging off a rickshaw rally to raise awareness among residents here on Sunday.

Earlier, Civil Surgeon Dr Charanjit Singh along with other senior officials of the Health Department formally inaugurated the drive by administering polio drops to a newborn child at Satellite Hospital Ranjit Avenue.

The district health officials said nearly 40,000 children below the age of 5 years were administered polio drops on the first day of the drive on Sunday. The department has set a target to cover approximately 1.14 lakh children in three days.

The Civil Surgeon said the remaining children would be administered drops during the door to door campaign scheduled for the next two days. He also appealed to the residents to cooperate with the visiting Health Department teams and get their children immunised.

“Polio is a deadly virus and a little effort of the part of parents can save their children from permanent disability,” he said, adding that though country is a polio-free nation, cases reported in neighbouring countries as Pakistan and Afghanistan were a cause for concern.

“Keeping in view the safety of children in the country, our government has continued with pulse polio drives and everyone must contribute in this direction,” he said.