DAVAO CITY — The Bureau of Customs officially received the first batch of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines on May 1 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on May 1, 2021.
In a press statement, the Bureau of Customs said it cleared the first batch of Sputnik V covid-19 vaccines containing 15,000 doses arrived via Qatar airlines from Russia.
The Sputnik V vaccine has been developed by Russia-based Gamaleya Institute. Last March, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given approval to Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use.
This is the 9th batch of Covid-19 vaccines cleared by the Bureau of Customs. Previous vaccines cleared include 3.5 million doses of Sinovac and 525,600 doses of AstraZeneca.
National Task Force against COVID 19 Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr, IATF Chair and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, Russian Ambassador to the Philippines Marat Pavlo, and Usec. Robert Borje, chief of the Presidential Protocol and Presidential Assistant On Foreign Affairs witness the arrival of the vaccines.
Bureau of Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero has instructed the BOC CoVax Special Handling Team to ensure that the Covid-19 vaccine shipments are given priority and expeditous clearance and asisst in undeguarding up to its storage facility.
In compliance to the directive of BOC Commissioner to expedite all vaccine importations of the government, District Collector Carmelita M. Talusan and the BOC NAIA team will ensure that the vaccines will be pre-cleared in its BOC One Stop Shop to ensure documents are processed and cleared fast considering these are time and temperature sensitive shipments .
BOC NAIA will continue to coordinate with IATF for other updates and guidelines.-PR
