ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Polio Eradication Program said this week 1,254 motorbikes had been given to polio workers across the country to improve their mobility and allow them to access children in remote areas.

In July, Pakistani vaccinators resumed an anti-polio drive that had been halted since March due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“Total of 1254 motorbikes have been handed over to the vaccinators of the federating areas,” the polio gram said in a statement on Monday.

Around 42 motorbikes were handed over to vaccinators in Islamabad, 376 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, 662 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, 164 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 10 bikes were given to the Federal Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI).

“Vaccinators are considered as the backbone of the EPI program as they reach every corner of the country to vaccinate all eligible children against vaccine preventable diseases,” the statement said. “Mobility of the vaccinators is seen as a main hindrance in order to complete their tasks. Therefore provision of vehicles is a much needed intervention that will facilitate in improving the performance and address the issue of mobility of vaccinators.”

The disruption of the polio drive due to the coronavirus has raised fears of a spike in polio cases in Pakistan, which, along with neighboring Afghanistan is just one of two countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.

UNICEF warned in April that disruptions in vaccination drives could create pathways to disastrous outbreaks in 2020 and beyond.

While the COVID-19 poses the greatest threat this year, vaccination drives in Pakistan have previously faced numerous challenges.

Last year, religious hard-liners in the northwestern city of Peshawar spread rumors of children falling sick due to the vaccine, triggering backlash in the conservative northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where most of Pakistan’s polio cases have been detected.

Mobs burned a village health center, blocked a highway and pelted cars with stones. Medical workers were harassed and threatened.

A woman vaccinator and two policemen escorting the polio team were also shot dead in separate incidents last year.