“The pandemic response of COVID-19 requires global solidarity and urgent global action,” said a global organization working to combat life-threatening poliovirus in a statement. “The World Polio Eradication Initiative is ready to respond.”

According to exbulletin.com, GPEI stated that all countries have been advised to postpone poliovirus prevention by the second half of 2020, and whether a campaign has already been postponed until June and whether to continue based on pandemic conditions are planning to reevaluate.

According to COVID-19 live trackers, it has grown since December, when more than one million infections and 53,000 deaths began worldwide.

“As a result, we take this decision with great regret, knowing that more children may be paralyzed by polio.” GPEI believes it is the right decision, given that it is essential to save COVID-19 and does not contribute to the further expansion of COVID-19. ”

The organization described the announcement as a “call to action” and stated that its programmatic and operational assets and human resources would be made available “to enable a strong response to COVID-19.”.

The announcement states that the Polio Surveillance Committee “should stop all polio activities that violate global guidance on physical distance, such as from house to house or other immunizations using oral or injectable vaccines. More than a week after a decision is made to avoid putting community and on-site workers at unnecessary risk and promote responsive and effective COVID-19 response in countries. ”

The GPEI has issued a final decision on the suspension of polio activity to countries and has warned countries that have decided to risk further expansion of COVID-19. It stated that the nations that continue their push are having protocols in place to protect health care workers and the general public.

If circumstances allow, we will expand our response to polio eradication and postpone vaccination campaigns “will prolong eradication periods and increase resource demand.”

The GPEI was launched in 1988 and is part of a global effort to eradicate polio. Since then, the incidence of polio has decreased by 99.9 percent.