The Emergency Operation Centre for polio in Sindh would launch a province wide polio campaign from November 30 to December 6 as part of the national immunization days. Approximately 9 million children under 5 years of age would be administered anti-polio drops across the 29 districts of the province, according to a news release on Saturday. Out of these more than 2 million children residing in Karachi. The campaign would be conducted whilst following strict WHO recommended COVID-19 prevention protocols which include the wearing of masks by workers, their temperatures being checked before deployment, not handling children directly, not entering houses, spending limited time with families, knocking on doors with pens, rulers or elbows rather than hands while reducing the length of meetings and attendance in meetings. Spokesperson EOC Sindh said “As a result of the pandemic, the gap in campaigns from March to July coupled routine immunization being affected left an immunity gap in children which we have been addressing through back to back monthly polio campaigns since August 2020. If we continue with the same momentum we will soon see significant results. While we deal with the pandemic, we must also deal with childhood immunization to prevent childhood diseases”.
