In order to maintain the polio free status of Haryana, the National Immunization (NID) round of Pulse Polio 2020-21 started on Sunday in all districts of the state wherein booth activity was undertaken on the first day.

Around 37 lakh children are to be covered during this campaign in the state, said an official spokesman.

He said that this campaign will continue for another two days by way of house-to-house activity. On the first day of activity, approximately 20 lakh (55 percent) children under 5 years of age have been administered polio drops.

The remaining children who were unable to receive polio drops during the booth activity on Sunday will be administered polio vaccine drops on February 1 and February 2 through house-to-house visits by teams and through mobile teams in high risk areas like slums, isolated hutments, brick kilns, floating/ migrating population & construction sites, the spokesman said.

Divulging details of the campaign, he said that in order to carry out this campaign, around 30,000 health teams comprising health workers, volunteers, Anganwari Workers, ASHA workers etc have been constituted. About 1,500 mobile teams will be working during the activity to cover all children in underserved and poorly approachable areas like brick kilns, construction sites, poultry farms, slums etc.

Moreover, about 5,000 field supervisors and district level officers supervised the activity in all districts apart from Independent Monitors of NPSP-WHO.

22 state observers from DGHS and NHM offices have also been deployed to monitor the campaign. This activity was preceded by undertaking awareness campaign through print media and other IEC activities, he said.

In view of the present scenario of COVID-19 pandemic, all health officers and front line workers are working with full precautions like use of personal protective equipment, wearing of masks, using sanitizers, gloves etc.  The teams are following the hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene and social distancing measures, he added.