ISLAMABAD: With the confirmation of four new polio cases, the total number of children hit by the virus in the country reached 295 on Friday.

Two cases were reported from Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one each from Khyber Agency in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Qila Abdullah district in Balochistan, said an official.

The outgoing year is shaping up to be the darkest year for the Pakistan polio programme, with a strong possibility that the number of confirmed cases may hit the 300 mark which would be the highest number of cases reported in the country since 1998.

An official from the Ministry of National Health Services said recently that an `emergency operations centre` had been established to oversee efforts to stem the spread of the polio virus.