7-day anti-polio drive begins in Pak as virus cases decline
34m children to get vaccine doses across the country; Bill Gates praises Pakistan’s success in fight against coronavirus in a telephone call to Army Chief Bajwa; KP to enforce micro smart lockdown
Pakistani health officials on Saturday launched a seven-day vaccination campaign against polio as part of efforts aimed at eliminating the crippling disease amid a steady decline in fatalities and infections from the coronavirus, which had recently overwhelmed the country’s fragile health system.
The anti-polio campaign, which began amid tight security, aims to vaccinate as many as 34 million children across Pakistan, including former Taliban strongholds bordering Afghanistan, a government statement said.
In Punjab, more than 17 million children below the age of five will be administered anti-polio drops.
The polio eradication campaign will begin in Balochistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir from Aug.17.
The campaign is being carried out following the successful resumption of polio activities in July 2020 ater a four-month suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Medical workers participating in the drive against polio were seen adhering to social distancing regulations as they wore face masks and gloves while going house-to-house to avoid a spike in coronavirus cases.
“I am hopeful that parents will continue to realise the importance of vaccinating their children during this campaign,” said Faisal Sultan, an adviser to the prime minister on health issues.
According to Rana Safdar, who heads the government’s polio programme, similar campaigns against polio will be launched in October, November and December.
Earlier on Saturday, Pakistan’s military said Bill Gates, the Microsot co-founder and billionaire philanthropist, praised Islamabad’s success in the fight against coronavirus in a telephone call to the country’s army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa. It said Gates also discussed the resumption of the drive against polio.
Pakistan halted the drive against polio in March and resumed it last month amid a decline in infections and fatalities from COVID-19.
On Saturday, Pakistan reported only 9 new deaths from the new virus in the past 24 hours, increasing the country’s total of COVID-19 deaths to 6,162. So far, Pakistan has reported 288,047 cases and officials say about 93% of the patients recovered since February, when the country reported its first confirmed case.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government is set to enforce a new strategy of micro smart lockdown meant to target only specific locations affected by the pandemic.
The health officials say micro smart lockdown has been recommended by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) as COVID-19 deaths and cases in the KP totalled 1,238 and 35,091, respectively.
Meanwhile, the KP reported 56 COVID-19 recoveries taking the number of the patients, who have recovered from the virus, to 32,373. The KP has only 1,480 active virus cases.
Health Secretary Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah said that the government had directed all district administrations to enforce micro smart lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“Wherever there are some positive [coronavirus] cases in close clusters and the dashboards of deputy commissioners show them, certain houses or a multi-storey building will be locked down and not the entire street,” he said.
The secretary said the successful enforcement of the smart lockdown strategy had reduced virus cases.
Officials at the directorate-general (health services) said the new plan was being implemented to check the transmission of the virus from affected houses to neighbourhoods.
They said a steep decline in the coronavirus incidence had been reported in the recent weeks but that couldn’t be a source of joy as the virus was still around but couldn’t be detected appropriately due to fewer testings.
The officials said previously, the province had seen a complete lockdown in cities with more cases but that caused economic hardships for the people, especially shopkeepers and dailywage workers.
They said the smart lockdown strategy reduced cases and enabled people to continue routine work as it was enforced in the areas, which recorded 1.5 cases per 1,000 population.