lakhs of children across the region were covered on the first day of Sub-National Immunisation round of Pulse Polio 2013-14 on Sunday. About 15.34 lakh children below five years of age were administered polio drops in 13 districts of Haryana. The children covered in the State on first day of the three-day campaign are 59 per cent of the total 26 lakh targeted children. A spokesman of Haryana Health department said the districts covered included Ambala, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Jhajjar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Mewat, Palwal, Panchkula, Panipat, Rohtak, Sonipat and Yamuna Nagar. A total of 10,573 booths were setup in the State and these were manned by about 42,000 health officials, volunteers, Anganwadi Workers and ASHA workers.
In Punjab, more than 3.50 lakh children, below five-years of age, were administered pulse polio drops. During this special pulse polio drive, aimed at covering ‘high risk’ populations of Punjab, 7,878 teams of health workers and volunteers have been constituted, supervised by 788 supervisors. The campaign will be carried for three days in all districts, except for ludhiana and Ajitgarh, where it will be held for five days. Total target of high risk population to be covered during the campaign is 9,84,722 children in Punjab.
Meanwhile, above 47,000 children were administered polio drops in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The pulse polio campaign will continue on Monday also. Around 1,334 workers, 78 Sector supervisors, 15 area supervisors with 100 reserved workers and 617 teams have been deployed by UT Department of Health And Family Welfare to vaccinate all the children in high risk areas and others along with the children on the roads, streets, beggars etc in Chandigarh.