Nationwide polio immunization campaign from Jan 20: Azad

He was speaking on the occassion of National Immunization Day, which was launched with President Pranab Mukherjee administering polio drops to children at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Minister said that more than 23 lakh volunteers will participate in this massive national campaign, with more than 1.5 lakh supervisors monitoring the quality and coverage of the immunization activity.

Maintaining that a campaign of such scale and size is unique in the world, Azad said, "Today is a momentous day for the whole country, as India has completed two years without any case of wild polio virus."

Emphasizing that polio eradication effort will continue to be one of the "thrust areas" of the government, he said the government has put in place an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan.

He said the government is committed to implementing it in all states across the country to deal with any case of polio importation.

"We have put in place an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan which we are committed to implement in all states across the country. Under it, a case of poliovirus anywhere in the country will be treated as a public health emergency. Rapid Response Teams have been formed in all the States and Union Territories, to effectively respond to any case of polio importation," he said.

The Minister said that the focus of the Ministry and the partners continues to be on the most vulnerable migrant, mobile populations, youngest children and under-served populations, which remain at the highest risk of contracting the disease.