Seoul, Sep 4 (IANS) North Korea has launched a national vaccination drive for children and pregnant women in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The campaign has been launched for those who missed out on crucial vaccines due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under this campaign, more than 8,00,000 children and 1,20,000 pregnant women will be given life saving vaccines. During this, vaccines for diphtheria, measles, rubella and hepatitis will be administered. News agency Yonhap gave this information quoting a press release issued by UNICEF.
“This campaign is an important milestone in our efforts to immunize every child in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and protect them from common childhood diseases,” said UNICEF Acting Representative Roland Kupka.
According to UNICEF, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant drop in vaccination rates in North Korea. Vaccination rates were over 96 percent before the pandemic, but by mid-2021 the rate had fallen to less than 42 percent, putting countless children at risk of life-threatening diseases.
UNICEF said North Korea received more than four million doses of the vaccines it needs in July to begin its vaccination campaign. Two million of these doses will be used in the current catch-up vaccination campaign, while the rest will be distributed to health centers.
UNICEF supported three previous catch-up vaccination campaigns in North Korea between 2021 and 2023, benefiting nearly 1.3 million children during the pandemic, the agency said.
–IANS
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