Some 43 per cent of targeted children in North Darfur have been covered by the second day of a state-wide immunisation campaign against polio and vitamin A deficiency on Sunday, authorities say, which they hail as ‘encouraging’.

Youssef Abdelrahman, director of the Expanded Immunisation Programme in North Darfur, says that the vaccination campaign against polio and vitamin A deficiency targets 170,161 children in 18 localities in the state.

He told Radio Dabanga on Sunday that the coverage on the second day of the campaign, had reached 43 per cent, and the reporting rate was 44 per cent, which he described as reassuring, stressing the need to reach all targeted children.

He appealed to the public to vaccinate all children to avoid polio, as ‘imported’ cases have been reported from Nigeria recently.