‘All polio samples tested negative in Punjab’

Polio workers continued visiting households on Tuesday as the second national immunisation drive of the year entered its third day. Lahore saw the most children vaccinated across Punjab, as over 400,000 children were immunised on the campaign’s first day.

The provincial capital was followed by Faisalabad and Rawalpindi, where over 300,000 and 200,000 children respectively received vaccinations during the ongoing national drive. Along with oral drops, polio teams also administered Vitamin-A capsules to children aged 6-59 months.

Polio programme head in Punjab and Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Coordinator Khizer Afzaal participated in a ceremony on Tuesday to administer polio drops to children. Talking to parents, he reiterated his commitment to eradicate polio from Pakistan, disclosing that except for one sample, all environmental samples in Punjab had tested negative in September. The excepted sample’s test results are pending as of the filing of this report.

He attributed the negative samples to the hard work of polio teams, who he lauded as the backbone of the programme.

“Punjab has been free of polio cases for three years since October 2020. This year, only six environmental samples tested positive so far. After successful polio campaigns, the virus has been driven out of all cities of Punjab in September.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2023.