Bureau of Customs-NAIA (BOC-NAIA) expeditiously cleared another batch of PfizerBioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, consisting of 651,500 doses, aboard HongKong Airlines on September 1, 2021.
The said vaccines arrived at around 9:20 PM at NAIA Terminal 3 via Flight No. LD457 and underwent advance clearance process on August 31 through the One-Stop-Shop of Customs NAIA to ensure its prompt release and delivery.
Underguarding duties were also done by Customs-NAIA CoVax Special Handling Task Force and other enforcement agencies until delivery to Pharmaserv Cold Storage Facility and Southern Phils Medical Center – Davao. Additional 188,370 doses of Pfizer are expected to arrive today, September 2, 2021 via DHL Express Flight LD 456 at 9:20PM. To date, BOC has cleared 87 shipments of COVID-19 vaccines which arrived in the country from February 28, composed of eight (vaccine brands with more than 52 million total doses processed and released by the Bureau of Customs. Of the total cleared vaccines, 29.5 million are Sinovac, 8.43 million are AstraZeneca, 5.66 million are Pfizer, 4.30million are Moderna, 3.24 million are Johnson & Johnson, 1million are Sinopharm, 380,000 are Sputnik V and 100,000 are Hayat-Vax vaccines.
Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the Bureau of Customs has also cleared 16,015 shipments of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as facemasks, face shields, test kits, and various medical equipment, of which 9,815 are released by BOC-NAIA accounting for 61.3% of the total PPE cleared by the Bureau.
As the government’s arm involved in the supply chain of essential goods, the Bureau of Customs under the leadership of Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero and the Port of NAIA headed by District Collector Carmelita Talusan, will continue to deliver and provide services to the public by ensuring the efficient processing and release of COVID-19 vaccines, as well as Personal Protective Equipment, in support to the nation’s quest against COVID-19.
