During the second round of National Immunization Day falling on April 2,2017 about 36 lac children of 0-5 years of age in the State would be immunized by the Punjab Health and Family Welfare Department.Disclosing this, Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister, Brahm Mohindra informed that 70 thousand vaccinators and 3,000 supervisors have been deputed to cover all the children of the State. He made an appeal to the parents to immunize their children with two drops vaccination of bivalent (oral polio vaccine) to protect them from Polio.Mr. Mohindra said that 15,000 booths have been set up statewide to cover the entire infant population of 0-5 years. He said that special house-teams have been formed who will go door to door to administer vaccination. These teams will be supervised by nearly 3000 supervisors.
Health Minister further divulged that the polio campaigns are being periodically undertaken in entire state as Punjab is at a high risk of polio virus importation from endemic country especially Pakistan.He said that the districts at risk are Ludhiana, Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, Mohali and Sangrur, where migratory families are residing. He said that besides conducting Special State Level Monitoring on these districts extensive efforts have been made to strengthen the activity in migrant families, as a large chunk of children in Punjab (20%) belong to migratory families. He said that this National Level Campaign against polio in all the districts in the state will be monitored by state observers from DHS office, NHM and NPSP (National Polio Surveillance Project).