Islamabad, Feb 10 (NationPress) In an alarming incident, two polio vaccination teams faced violence in various regions of Lahore, Pakistan, as parents resisted the administration of polio drops to their children, according to local media reports on Tuesday.

Police reports indicate that in the Harbanspura locality, the polio team was obstructed from vaccinating children, leading to an alleged assault on the health workers, as reported by the prominent daily, Dawn.

The FIR details that the assailants attacked the polio staff and subsequently summoned accomplices who also assaulted the workers. A police unit arrived after the team contacted a helpline for assistance.

Furthermore, the police in Shahdara filed charges against the parents of several children for reportedly intimidating female polio workers who were present to vaccinate local children.

Currently, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only nations where the Wild Poliovirus remains endemic. Polio workers in Pakistan have been frequently targeted, particularly in the provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

In the first polio campaign of 2026, local media reported that approximately one million children were not vaccinated, with 53,000 refusals documented. The highest rate of refusals—58 percent—was noted in Karachi.

Throughout the campaign, over 44.3 million children in Pakistan received polio drops, achieving a household coverage rate of 98 percent, although two percent of children were still missed. The total number of unvaccinated children remains significant given Pakistan's large population.

In total, around 0.95 million children were reported as missed during the 2026 campaign, with a considerable number (0.67 million) not receiving vaccinations because they were absent from home. Additionally, polio drops were administered to 2.5 million guest children, likely including many who missed the vaccination.

An official noted, "233,000 children were categorized as leftovers due to security issues, community protests, and areas affected by snow." This total comprised 184,000 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while nearly 50,000 children remained unreachable in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan (PoGB) due to harsh weather and the suspension of vaccination campaigns.

Security concerns led to the postponement of the polio eradication campaign in regions including Mastung, Gwadar, Chagai, and Awaran in Balochistan. An official reported that 0.14 percent of targeted children were classified as refusals, with 31,000 refusals recorded in Karachi, the largest share.

The report indicated that over 22.9 million children were vaccinated in Punjab, more than 10.5 million in Sindh, over 7.13 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and around 2.3 million in Balochistan, according to Dawn.

During the campaign, over 455,000 children were vaccinated in Islamabad, about 261,000 in PoGB, and over 673,000 in PoJK.