Aurangabad, Jan 11:
The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) today has declared that the pulse polio immunisation programme, scheduled to be implemented in the city on January 17, is being postponed for the indefinite period.
AMC gave a reference that the union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) had issued an order (on January 9) directing all the state governments to postpone the pulse-polio programme. The principal secretaries of all state's MoHFW have been intimated through written correspondence.
The municipal officer of health (MoH) Dr Neeta Padalkar said," The pulse-polio programme was scheduled to be implemented on Sunday (January 17), and it is postponed till the next order announced by union MoHFW."
Earlier, the AMC administration was supposed to give polio dosage to 1.98 lakh children of less than five years through 645 booths. It had formed 38 reporting units, seven core committee medical officers and 39 responsible medical officers, apart from 136 supervisors and 1,890 health workers, for the drive.
It may be noted that the COVID vaccination programme will be implemented on January 16 in all over the country. Hence the focus of all health officials is on planning the successful implementation of the COVID vaccination programme. This would be the reason for postponing of polio drive for kids of less than five years age, underlined some experts. The target of MoHFW is to administer COVID vaccine to crores of healthcare and frontline workers in the country.