SRINAGAR, Mar 1: Over 18 lakh children under the age of 5 across Jammu and Kashmir are set to receive oral polio vaccine on National Immunization Day, March 3, across 10,000 booths, with over 10 lakh alone in the Kashmir Division.
As per available details, 18,74,525 children are to be covered in the Union Territory under the pulse polio immunization, with 8,06,898 in Jammu districts and 10,67,627 in Kashmir districts.
Officials informed Excelsior that for the National Immunization Day, a total of 10,799 vaccination booths will be established, which includes 5,410 in the Jammu region and 5,389 in the Kashmir region.
Further, regarding the healthcare workers involved in the immunization, details state that across J&K, 42,929 vaccinators will be involved in the process, with 21,360 in Jammu and 21,569 in Kashmir.
At the same time, the Directorate of Family Welfare MCH & Immunization J&K has also designated 2,169 supervisors for seamless immunization, which includes 1,077 for Jammu and 1,092 for Kashmir, along with 835 Transit teams.
With regard to the availability of the Bivalent Oral Poliovirus Vaccine (BOPV), the details available state that for the entire J&K, 23,80,260 doses have been kept available. For Kashmir, 13,50,360 doses are available, while for Jammu, 10,30,000 Bivalent Oral Poliovirus Vaccine doses have been kept available.
Concerning the district-wise estimations of the number of children under 5 in Kashmir, Srinagar has the highest number of children set for polio vaccination, over 1.90 lakh; followed by Baramulla, over 1.63 lakh; Anantnag, over 1.43 lakh; and Kupwara, over 1.30 lakh.
The lowest is in district Shopian, which has over 42 thousand children under 5 set for oral polio vaccination, with over 46 thousand in Ganderbal, over 61 thousand in Bandipora, and over 88 thousand in Kulgam.
In the Jammu region, the highest number of children under 5 set for immunization is in Jammu district, over 1 lakh 88 thousand and over 1 lakh in Kathua district; the lowest is in Kishtwar district with over 37 thousand children set for immunization on the day, over 55 thousand in Doda, and nearly 1 lakh children in Rajouri.
Officials told Excelsior that the immunization starting from March 3 will continue till March 5 and on the first day, which is March 3, people will bring their children under 5 to the nearby health facility for the oral polio vaccine.