Getting close to the proposed target of inoculating 70 lakh children against polio, the state health department managed to reach 64.4 lakh of them on Sunday.
As per estimates prepared by the Department of Public Health, only about six lakh children remain to be administered the polio vaccine and they would be covered on Monday and Tuesday during door-to-door campaigns. The polio immunisation drive was conducted on a pervasive level and went on through the day sans problems. The second schedule of immunisation will be carried out on February 24.
Addressing the Pulse Polio campaign in Vellore, Health Minister Dr V S Vijay said that Tamil Nadu is at the forefront of Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme in the country. TN has achieved the status of a polio-free state for eight consecutive years and is stepping into the ninth year, he said. “We have achieved 98 per cent of routine immunisation and the State government is taking all measures to achieve 100 per cent immunisation. The public should cooperate and administer vaccine to their children below five years to achieve a disease-free state and a healthy future generation,” the minister said.
As many as 1,013 transit booths had been put up in airports, railway stations and bus stands in the State for the Pulse Polio Campaign, Dr Vijay said and added that NGOs like the Rotary Club had played a vital role in the immunisation programme.
Speaking on the ocassion, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Dr R T Porkai Pandian said, “There are chances of India being declared as a polio-free country by the World Health Organisation (WHO) by 2014, as there has been no case of polio in the country for the last two years.”