A new bivalent vaccine (bOPV) is being introduced in the country for the first time in Bihar from today, the National Immunisation Day (NID) for pulse polio campaign. The recently developed bivalent vaccine can control both the P1 and P3 types of polio virus simultaneously. The President Smt Pratibha Devisingh Patil launched the NID by administering polio drops to ten babies at Rashtrapati Bhawan yesterday .Speaking on the occasion the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the bivalent vaccine will also be introduced in Uttar Pradesh from next round. About 25 lakh kids will get the new drops. Overall 170 million kids are likely to be immunized in this round of NID. AIR correspondent says that 721 cases of Polio were reported in 2009, 62 more than the cases reported in 2008. In Uttar Pradesh alone 571 cases of polio were reported last year.