BOC clears over 3M jabs of Pfizer, Sinovac vaccines

0
959
Photo courtesy of BOC.
  • The Bureau of Customs has cleared three shipments of COVID-19 vaccines totaling 3.074 million doses that arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) from June 9 to June 10, 2021
  • The first importation consisting of 111,150 doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine was immediately transferred to the designated cold storage facility pending delivery to Davao
  • The second importation consisting of one million doses of the Sinovac vaccine was immediately underguarded to the Pharmaserv cold storage facility in Marikina City
  • Part of the last importation of 1.963 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine was transferred to the assigned cold storage facility prior to its domestic flight to Davao, and the rest was brought to different cold chain storage facilities in Metro Manila

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has cleared three importations consisting of 3.074 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines that arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) from June 9 to June 10, 2021.

The first importation consisting of 111,150 doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine that arrived at NAIA Terminal 2 on June 9 was immediately transferred to the designated cold storage facility pending eventual delivery to Davao via domestic flight.

The second importation consisting of one million doses of the Sinovac vaccine that arrived on June 10 from Beijing, China, was immediately underguarded to the Pharmaserv cold storage facility in Marikina City.

Lastly, 1.963 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine also arrived on June 10 at NAIA Terminal 3. A load of the vaccines was escorted during transfer to the assigned cold storage facility prior its domestic flight to Davao, and the rest was brought to three different cold chain storage facilities or warehouses in Metro Manila.

An additional 100,000 doses of Sputnik V from Russia are set to arrive at NAIA on June 11.

BOC-NAIA district collector Carmelita Talusan attributed the seamless clearance processes in the handling, release, and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to the cooperation and coordination among all concerned government agencies.

Earlier, BOC and the Department of Health (DOH) convened several virtual meetings to discuss the final preparations for the anticipated influx of vaccine importations, particularly of Pfizer vaccines, through Davao International Airport and Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

Contingency plans discussed during the meeting centered on natural calamities and emergencies, including logistics and security issues and possible scenarios that may be encountered once the Pfizer vaccines arrive in Cebu and Davao.

The DOH also highly encouraged BOC ports to adopt the customs procedure observed and implemented by BOC-NAIA to facilitate COVID-19 vaccines so as to ensure the seamless and expeditious release and distribution of vaccines in the Visayas and Mindanao.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR