Polio Ravivar sees as much as 172 million youngsters aged 0-5 years receiving oral drops.
The Union authorities has rescheduled the nationwide polio vaccination programme from January 17 to January 31 within the wake of phase-I of the Covid-19 inoculation that rolls out in a couple of days. As is the custom, the Polio Ravivar (Polio Sunday) drive shall be flagged of by President Ramnath Kovind who will administer the “drops” to youngsters at Rashtrapati Bhavan a day earlier than the drive.
Launched in 1995, Polio Ravivar or the Pulse Polio Immunisation programme sees as much as 172 million youngsters aged 0-5 years receiving oral drops on the day, additionally referred to as Nationwide Immunisation Day. It was conceptualised to attain 100 per cent protection underneath oral polio vaccine via “social mobilisation” and “mop-up operations”. As a consequence of these large drives, WHO, in February 2012, eliminated India from the record of nations with energetic endemic wild polio virus transmission.
The choice to postpone this 12 months’s Polio Ravivar was communicated by the Central authorities on January 9, the day it introduced that India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive would start on January 16. It cited “unexpected circumstances” for the postponement.
“The choice is consistent with the said coverage of the Well being Ministry to make sure that Covid well being providers and non-Covid important well being providers proceed in tandem with out adversely impacting one another,” a authorities launch stated right this moment.
Throughout a gathering with the Chief Minister on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi additionally stated that the nation should guarantee routine vaccination schedules for different ailments weren’t affected due to Covid.
Over three crore healthcare and frontline staff shall be lined in phase-I of the Covid-19 immunisation drive that the Prime Minister himself will launch on January 16.
