Pakistan’s latest anti-polio drive reportedly failed to meet its vaccination targets, leaving hundreds of thousands of children unvaccinated, ARY News reported on Wednesday, citing official sources.
The sub-national campaign, held from September 1 to 7 across 81 districts, achieved 98% of its target, according to officials. Gilgit-Baltistan recorded the highest coverage at 101%, while Punjab reported the lowest at 97%. Islamabad, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Azad Kashmir each achieved 98% coverage.
Despite these overall figures, around 422,152 children across the country were not vaccinated. Of these, about 355,000 were unavailable during visits, while 19,403 missed vaccination due to security issues and local boycotts. Authorities also logged 47,793 boycott-related cases nationwide.
Province-wise data showed that Sindh had the most unvaccinated children (216,881), followed by Punjab (82,792), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (68,529), and Balochistan (47,335). In Islamabad, 5,098 children missed the campaign, while 647 in Azad Kashmir and 870 in Gilgit-Baltistan were also left unvaccinated.
