National Polio immunisation drive deferred to January 31

NEW DELHI: The National Polio immunisation programme, as part of which children in the age group of 0-5 years are administered polio drops, has been rescheduled to January 31.

The National Immunisation Day (NID), commonly known as Pulse Polio Immunisation programme, was earlier scheduled for January 17 across India.

“The massive countrywide COVID-19 vaccination drive will be rolled out by Prime Minister from January 16. This would be the world’s largest immunisation exercise. Therefore, it has been decided by the Ministry of Health in consultation with the office of the President of India to reschedule the Polio vaccination day, also known as the National Immunisation Day (NID) or ‘Polio Ravivar’ to 31st January,” the Union Health Ministry said.

The President will launch the Polio National Immunisation Day on 30th January by administering Polio drops to some children at the Rashtrapati Bhawan at 11:45 am, the ministry said in a statement.

“The decision is in keeping with the stated policy of the Health Ministry to ensure that COVID management and vaccination services as well as nonCOVID essential health services proceed in tandem without adversely impacting each other,” it stated.

The Union health ministry’s immunisation division had issued a notice to all the states on January 9, which said “This is to inform that due to unforeseen activities, it is decided to postpone the scheduled Polio NID (National Immunisation Day) round from January 17, 2021 till further notice.”