CM inaugurates anti-typhoid drive

Children aged 9 months to 15 years will be vaccinated during the 15-day campaign

LAHORE:

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar inaugurated a 15-day typhoid vaccination campaign at a hotel on Wednesday.

During the first phase starting February 1, children aged nine months to 15 years will be vaccinated in 12 districts.

The second phase of the drive will begin in May to vaccinate 19.3 million children in urban areas of 24 other districts.

Representatives of the World Health Organisation and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund also spoke on the occasion while Health Adviser Hanif Pitafi, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Information and Culture Firdous Ashiq Awan and others attended the ceremony.

Addressing the ceremony, the chief minister thanked the stakeholders for their cooperation and expressed hope the typhoid conjugate vaccine will protect the children from the fatal disease.

“The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government is working day and night to improve the quality of life of the people. Special attention was given to the health of mothers and children,” he added.

The CM said the construction of seven new mother and child hospitals had been started in Lahore, Layyah, Rajanpur, Sialkot, Bahawalnagar, Attock and Mianwali.

New medical colleges and universities would also be established, phase-wise, while the University of Child Health was being established at Children’s Hospital in Lahore, he continued.

Read Punjab education ministry bars staff from vaccination duties

The scope of Sehat Sahulat Card programme had been extended to 36 districts and free medicines were also being provided to patients through Insaf Medicine Card facility, he further said.

Similarly, the CM stated, Rs8 billion was being spent on upgradation of hospitals in Chiniot, Dera Ghazi Khan, Mianwali, Attock, Jhang, Kasur, Lodhran and Rajanpur through the prime minister’s health initiative.

Along with it, around 32,000 recruitments had been made through PPSC to overcome staff shortage in hospitals, the CM affirmed.

Sharing details about the health sector reforms, the chief minister highlighted that 20 new biosafety level-3 labs had increased the daily coronavirus testing capacity from 400 to 25,000 and the government spent Rs14 billion on the treatment of patients. Four such labs will be established soon, he revealed.

“Meanwhile, Rs10 billion is earmarked for the procurement of the latest medical equipment for government hospitals. The provincial cabinet has also approved the launching of a universal healthcare programme to provide free of charge treatment facilities to 120 million people.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2021.