The state health department has set up a special control room with representation from various stakeholders, including doctors and development partners such as World Health Organisation (WHO), in order to monitor the vaccination programme for Covid-19 across Jharkhand, officials said on Tuesday.

The state control room consists of five teams of around 50 doctors with each team assigned a specific task, said Dr Ajit Prasad, a member of the control room.

The control room comprises separate teams for technical assistance, data management, communication and demand generation, cold chain and logistics management and capacity building. Each team has around 10 doctors, said Dr Prasad, the second lead in the technical assistance team.

Dr L.R. Pathak, a member of the capacity building team, said all stakeholders will meet every week and plan the future course of action in the vaccination programme. The members of the control room will also identify various challenges in running the immunization programme in Jharkhand and troubleshoot, he added.

The control room has been given the responsibility of monitoring the storage and transportation of the vaccine once it is made available to the state. “Since every team has been given different sets of responsibilities, it will become easier for them to focus on specific challenges and take up the matter during the weekly meetings,” said Dr Prasad.

On Tuesday, the National Health Mission (NHM) answered frequently asked questions related to the Covid-19 vaccine in which it stated that a photo identity proof will be a must for any person to get Covid-19 vaccine shots. The document further stated that people would have to continue taking precautionary measures against the virus even after getting the shots.

The vaccine, it said, will generate protective levels of antibodies in the body in two weeks after taking the second dose.

As per figures with NHM, Jharkhand already has 1,666 electrical equipment for running vaccination programmes. These include ice lined refrigerators (ILRs) and deep freezers (DFs). ILRs, officials said, maintain a temperature between 2 degree Celsius and 8 degree Celsius, while DFs help maintain a temperature below 0 degrees for vaccine storage. Deep freezers are also used for maintaining the temperature during transportation of vaccines.

For storage of the vaccine, Jharkhand already has 275 cold chain points and has proposed another 30 to enhance the storage capacity in the state, officials from NHM said.

Figures shared by a source in the health department highlighted that Jharkhand has five walk-in coolers and four more are being procured. The state also has three walk-in freezers and two more will be procured soon. Besides, there are 5,505 cold boxes and 41,979 vaccine carriers available in Jharkhand.