Lahore vaccinates 2.2 million children in September polio drive, next campaign set for November 2-8 as city stays polio-free since April

The numbers from Lahore look good. Health officials, though, are refusing to relax.

At a review meeting on Tuesday, the Punjab Emergency Operations Centre said teams gave polio drops to more than 2.2 million children in the city over six days in September, reaching 98 per cent coverage. Data from the seventh day was still being entered when the figures were shared.

Punjab EOC Coordinator Khalid Parvaiz chaired the meeting with Lahore’s chief executive officer for health, Dr Asif Arbab Khan. Together they locked in preparations for the next drive, which will run from November 2 to 8.

No virus since April — and no room to be casual

Lahore has had no detected poliovirus since April 2026. Officials were blunt about what that does and does not mean. People keep moving in and out of the city, and the virus is still circulating in parts of the country, so it could be carried back in at any time.

That is why Parvaiz pressed the district team on the unglamorous work: fix the gaps at union council level, clean up the data, and make sure anything monitoring teams flag is actually acted on before the next round. A missed child, he said, is where a campaign quietly fails.

Dr Khan made a similar point about coordination. District managers, field teams and supervisors will have to stay in step through November, he said, with accountability at every level if Lahore is to hold on to what it has gained.