The National Immunisation Day, as part of which children aged between 0-5 years are administered polio drops, has been rescheduled to January 31.

 

The National Immunisation Day (NID), commonly known as Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme, was earlier scheduled for January 17 across India.

 

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has rescheduled the National Immunisation Day or "Polio Ravivar" to January 31 in the backdrop of countrywide Covid-19 vaccination drive to be rolled out by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from January 16.

 

"As the Covid-19 vaccination drive would be the world's largest immunisation exercise, it has been decided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in consultation with the office of the President of India to reschedule the Polio vaccination day to January 31, 2021 (Sunday)," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

 

The ministry further said that the President will launch the Polio National Immunisation Day on January 30, 2021 (Saturday) by administering polio drops to some children at the Rashtrapati Bhawan at 11.45 a.m.

 

The decision is in keeping with the stated policy of the Health Ministry to ensure that COVID management and vaccination services as well as non-COVID essential health services proceed in tandem without adversely impacting each other.