ISLAMABAD: The Japanese government has announced providing $4.6 million grant to Pakistan to support the supply of essential polio vaccine for campaigns during 2018-19.

Notes of grant were signed and exchanged here on Monday between the government of Japan, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the United Nations Children`s Fund (Unicef).

The grant will suppon procurement of 25 million doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV)which would be sufficient to vaccinating children under the age of five in high-risk districts across the country thus enabling the programme to quickly close immunity gaps.

With this latest grant aid, the Japanese government had contributed about $230 million towards polio eradication initiative since 1996. To achieve and maintain interruption in polio transmission, Japan believed that robust routine immunisation was required, and had provided technical assistance for the Expanded Immunisation Programme (EPI) in Pakistan since 2001.-Amin Ahmed