A total of around 67 lakh of the 70.32 lakh children were administered polio drops in the second phase of the pulse polio immunisation programme held on Sunday. The children who had missed out would be covered in the coming days with health workers taking up door-to-door visits till the end of this week to ensure that no child was left out, said health department officials.
The government had put up 43,051 booths, including 1,600 mobile and 1,652 transit booths across the State, for the programme. Around two lakh health workers, including doctors, nurses and village health nurses, were involved in the exercise.
Governor K. Rosaiah inaugurated the second phase of pulse polio immunisation at Raj Bhavan in the presence of Rotary International District 3230 members.
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“The Rotarians took a pledge 27 years ago to eradicate polio. We have spent around Rs. 21,000 crore on polio eradication. Though officially we have been declared polio-free, we need to run the campaign for 10 years,” said Uday Kumar, chairman of Polio Plus. Director of Public Health K. Koladaisamy said, “This time we intensified our activity around toll gates and bus stands to ensure that no child below the age of five was left out. The trend was the same as last time.”