An important meeting of the Provincial Task Force on Polio eradication was held at the Sindh Secretariat under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sindh Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah on Friday.
The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary Home Qazi Shahid Pervez, Health Secretary Kazim Jatoi, Local Government Secretary Syed Najam Shah, Provincial Coordinator Emergency Operations Center Fayyaz Abbasi, representatives of PPHI and UNICEF while all the commissioners and deputy commissioners have attended the meeting through video link.
It was informed in the meeting that like the rest of the country, a 7-day anti-polio campaign is being launched in Sindh province from August 2 and in this special polio campaign, 7.4 million children in 22 districts of the province will be vaccinated against the polio virus.
The Chief Secretary Sindh said that it is the grace of Allah that no case of polio has been reported in Sindh province in the last one year. While briefing the meeting, it was informed by the health department authorities that 535,111 surgical masks, 63,643 hand sanitizers have been provided to the polio workers keeping in view the corona virus.
More than 50,000 polio workers in 22 districts of the province will be part of this campaign. ۔It was further informed in the meeting that special attention is being paid to Karachi division in this campaign and 32 health camps will also be set up at different places of the city.
In the meeting, Chief Secretary Sindh directed the Deputy Commissioners to achieve the target of 100% of the polio campaign and their performances will be reflected in their annual evaluation reports. Chief Secretary Sindh appealed to the parents to cooperate with the polio workers and vaccinate children up to five years of age. He added that the role of social mobilizers and influencers should be made more effective to persuade parents who previously refused polio drops.
