The Punjab government is going to initiate the 'State-wide Vaccination Campaign against Measles-Rubella' from May 1, 2018 as part of national strategy to eliminate measles and control rubella in the country.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Brahm Mohindra on Friday said already three phases of MR vaccination campaign have been completed in 13 states covering around 7-8 crore children with this vaccine safely while Punjab is being covered in phase four. "An estimated 75 lakh children aged between 9 months to less than 15 years will be vaccinated in the campaign over a period of 4-6 weeks and the vaccination will first be conducted in schools and later in community through outreach sessions" he added .

He said auto-disable syringes are used for vaccination of each child. These syringes are rendered non-usable after single use. All the vaccinators are highly skilled health staffs who administer vaccinations to the children in routine immunization in large numbers regularly following the best injection and waste disposal practices. Talking about the road map to ensure coverage across the state, Mr Mohindra said that 5200 vaccination teams and 1733 supervisors have been deployed to cover about 29000 schools conducting nearly 59000 vaccination sessions in all districts. So far, teachers from about 28500 schools have been sensitized about the campaign.