Over 200,000 polio workers trained

Training to build the capacity of polio teams and their supervisors ahead of a national immunisation drive beginning on January 16 has been completed all over Punjab.

As per the Punjab Emergency Operations Centre, more than 200,000 polio workers and their officials in charge were trained during the two-week exercise.

In the second phase that was wrapped up on Thursday, more than 180,000 workers were oriented on various phases of campaign preparedness and implementation.

In the first phase, which was completed last week, over 17,000 polio team area in-charges and 3,800 district supervisors had been trained.

Over 14,000 polio staff were trained in Lahore to prepare them to reach every child with two drops of the vaccine.

More than 9,500 staff members underwent the orientation in Faisalabad, 8,000 in Multan and 9,000 in Rawalpindi.

“Polio teams’ capacity has been built in vaccine cold chain maintenance, vaccination of children, route map development, data collection on tally sheets and inter-personal communication,” read the handout released on Thursday.

Punjab polio programme head Khizer Afzaal had directed the provincial monitors to observe the trainings.

“It is of utmost importance that quality of trainings is not compromised," he said.

Punjab has been polio-free for two years, but the has been detected in big cities.

He said the government could not achieve a polio-free certification without the support of the parents.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2023.