Punjab completes year’s final polio immunization drive

LAHORE: Punjab concluded its third and final national polio immunization drive of the year, reaching over thousands of children who had previously missed vaccinations and aiming to curb polio virus circulation in the province.
The campaign had successfully covered 33 districts, wrapping it up in Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Faisalabad on Sunday. Over 200,000 teams mobilized across the province, diligently locating children who had been "not available" in previous rounds.
Punjab polio programme head and Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator Adeel Tasawar, underscored the province’s commitment to eradicating polio, crediting provincial leadership, including Secretary of Primary and Secondary Healthcare Nadia Squib. He noted that daily reviews of the campaign highlighted polio eradication as a top priority.
Tasawar expressed concern over imported virus strains posing a risk to Punjab’s children, citing genomic sequencing results that linked recent strains to Afghanistan and other endemic regions. He assured the public of the government's goal to halt virus transmission by June 2025, with zero polio cases targeted by year-end 2025.
He announced plans for an upcoming campaign review session, led by the secretary of Primary and Secondary Healthcare, and thanked polio workers for their dedication to the cause.
Preliminary data revealed that over 23 million children had been vaccinated by the sixth day of the campaign. Lahore recorded the highest vaccination coverage with more than 2.2 million children immunised, followed by Faisalabad with over 1.5 million, and Rahim Yar Khan with 1.1 million.
The national immunization drive, which began on October 28, aimed to reach 23.3 million children. The campaign spanned seven days in major districts such as Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Faisalabad, while other districts completed the effort in five days.