ISLAMABAD: The Health Ministry on Sunday decided to distribute Rs250 million among the flood-affected polio workers.

Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel said that the workers continued relief activities despite the damage caused by the calamity. Around 33 million people got effected and polio workers also suffered heavy losses during the catastrophe with one third of the country under water, the federal minister added.

Abdul Qadir Patel said that according to the polio program, about 12,500 polio workers have been affected by the floods. “In this testing time, we cannot leave our workers alone and we should ensure maximum compensation to polio workers.” the health minister said.

Mr Patel said that majority of the polio workers are in Sindh and Balochistan, many of their houses were either washed away in the floods or partially damaged. On this occasion, Coordinator Polio Shahzad Baig said that we have more than 350,000 frontline staff and it was a difficult task to identify and compile the list of the workers affected by the flood.