Tuesday, 22 June 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
In order to avoid the risk of Covid contagion during the upcoming pulse polio drive, the Dehradun chief development officer has insisted that the no-touch vaccination rule should be followed by the health department.
On Monday, the CDO, Nitika Khandelwal conducted a virtual meeting with the district officials of various departments like the health department, education department, Women Empowerment and Child Development (WECD) and Panchayati Raj regarding the pulse polio drive which would commence from June 27.
In the meeting, the CDO directed the officials to follow the Covid-19 norms while administering polio vaccination to children of age up to five years. She ordered the health department to train the staff properly who would be deployed for polio vaccination. She also asked the health department to allot the duty to staff for polio vaccination properly without causing any disruption in the ongoing Covid vaccination programme in the district. She said that in order to avoid the risk of Covid contagion among children and parents in polio booths and during door to door visits, the health department must avoid touching the child while giving polio drops.
Dr Vikas Sharma from World Health Organisation (WHO) also attended the meeting and presented a presentation on the process of polio vaccination while taking all the precautionary measures. Besides this, the officials from the health department informed that polio vaccination will be administered in every health centre of every block of the district this Sunday except Chakrata and Tyuni. Subsequently, the seven-day door to door polio vaccination drive would start from Monday.
