Around 4.5 lakh children under the age of five years were administered polio drops in Haryana on Sunday during the first day of second round of Sub National Immunisation (SNID) of Pulse Polio 2020-21.
On the first day of campaign, about 4.5 lakh that is 56 percent children under five years of age have been administered polio drops in high-risk areas of 13 districts of the State namely Ambala, Faridabad, Gurugram, Jhajjar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Mewat, Palwal, Panchkula, Panipat, Rohtak, Sonipat and Yamunanagar. Containment zones in these districts were also covered, said an official spokesman.
Around 7.9 lakhs children are to be covered during this campaign in the state, the spokesman said.
He said Union Minister Ratan Lal Kataria inaugurated the SNID round in district Yamunanagar.
On the first-day, booth activity was undertaken in order to maintain the polio-free status of the State, the spokesman said.
He said that in view of the present scenario of COVID-19 pandemic, all health officials and front line workers are working with full precaution like the use of personal protective equipment, mask, sanitizer, gloves etc. Besides this, teams are also following the hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene and social distancing measures.
The spokesman further informed that most of the district’s booths were inaugurated by eminent personalities including MLAs, Deputy Commissioners, Municipal Councilors and Civil Surgeons or other senior officers.
This campaign will continue for another two days by way of house-to-house activity to trace and administer polio drops to the left out children on booth day.
In order to smoothly carry out this campaign, around 4500 health teams including health workers, volunteers, Anganwari Workers and ASHA etc and about 500 field supervisors in all districts and five-six district supervisors in each district supervised the activity apart from Independent Monitors of NPSP-WHO, informed the spokesman.
The left out children during the booth activity on the first day will be administered polio vaccine drops on November 2 and 3 through visit of house-to-house teams in high-risk areas like slums, isolated hutments, brick kilns, floating and migrating population and construction sites, the spokesman added.