Customs clear 1M vials of Sinovac on Sunday

DAVAO CITY — Bureau of Customs Port of NAIA on June 05, 2021 processed the pre-clearance import documents of the 1,000,000 doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines consigned to the Department of Health, which arrived today, June 06, 2021.

The 28 pallets containing 1M doses arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 via Cebu Pacific Air Flight 5J-671 at 7:22AM today. The shipment was immediately loaded in 2 reefer vans and was transported to the Pharmaserv Cold Storage Facility located in San Roque, Marikina City, underguarded by the Customs-NAIA CoVax Task Force and other enforcement agencies.

Just last week, DOH lauded the Bureau of Customs in an Interagency Conference on Customs Clearance of Vaccine Importations for the expeditious and seamless processing of COVID-19 vaccines arriving in Manila since February 2021. 

The BOC welcomed the invitation of DOH to discuss the best practices in the Port of NAIA to prepare for the anticipated COVID-19 vaccine importations in Cebu and Davao this month. The DOH highly encouraged the BOC ports to adopt the Covid-19 Vaccine handling in Manila by the Port of NAIA to seamlessly facilitate the release of vaccines in the Visayas and Mindanao islands.

As of June 6, a total of 9,329,050 COVID-19 Vaccines have been cleared by the Bureau of Customs-Port of NAIA since February 2021. Of which, 6.5M are Sinovac, 2.556M are AstraZeneca, 80K are Sputnik V, and the remaining 193,050 are Pfizer jabs. 

More U.S-made vaccines are also set to arrive in the country this month.

The Bureau of Customs, thru the guidance and directives of Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero, ensures the overall preparedness of the BOC in handling the most sought-after importations in this time of crisis, including PPE, other medical supplies, and COVID-19 Vaccines. 

Meanwhile, the Port of NAIA District Collector Carmelita M. Talusan assures that the port remains steadfast in its mandate to ensure unhampered delivery of its services, and will continue to share the port’s best practices in handling the time-sensitive COVID-19 Vaccine importations at interagency conferences and forums to contribute to the national vaccination program of the Philippine government.