Pakistan to resume polio vaccinations

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan announced Tuesday it would resume vaccinations against polio next week, months after the drive against this crippling children’s disease was halted because the novel coronavirus had overwhelmed the country’s health system.

The anti-polio campaign would last three days, from next Monday, with the plan to have about 800,000 children vaccinated, the officials said. Police departments have received requests to ensure the safety of the polio workers.

Rana Mohammad Safdar, who oversees anti-polio operations in the country, said polio workers would adhere to social distancing regulations while carrying out their duty.

The announcement comes after Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, told Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates last month that despite the challenge of covid-19, the government planned to restart polio vaccinations across the country. Bajwa gave no date at the time.

Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the three countries in the world where polio — a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the polio virus — is still endemic. The nonprofit Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has helped Pakistan and other places worldwide fight the disease.

The World Health Organization at a meeting in June reviewed the polio situation in Pakistan and elsewhere and extended travel restrictions, initially enforced in 2014, that require people to get vaccinated against polio a month before traveling to Pakistan.