An immunization program will help stop the spread of polio, the head of Mexico’s health agency said Monday, the first time the country has announced the plan in nearly two decades.

The program, dubbed M-PV, will focus on polio vaccinations, with the goal of curbing the spread to as many as 30,000 people.

The first phase of the program is scheduled to begin in 2019, and will cover 3 million people, said Carlos Romero, Mexico’s secretary of public health.

The plan is part of a broader push to protect Mexico’s public health from the virus, which has killed more than 10,000 and infected more than 200,000.

Mexico has been the focus of a massive international effort to fight the virus that began in 2006, when the World Health Organization announced its first vaccine for the virus.