Philippines gets 2nd batch of Sinovac vaccines

MANILA, Philippines — Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. and testing czar Vince Dizon yesterday welcomed the arrival of another 500,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines as part of the 25 million doses purchased by the government from China.

The second batch of Sinovac vaccines purchased by the government arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 at 5:17 p.m. aboard Philippine Airlines Flight PR 361, a commercial flight from Beijing.

Sinovac vaccines distributed to various hospitals across the Philippines now total 1.5 million doses.

The Bureau of Customs (BOC), through the Port of NAIA, cleared the 500,000 doses consigned to the
Department of Health (DOH).

Last Friday, the batch of vaccines underwent pre-arrival clearance through the NAIA One-Stop-Shop and were cleared for release within 15 minutes.

The BOC has so far cleared and released over 3.02 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines imported by the DOH.

Upon arrival, the shipment was immediately transported to the Metropac facility, where the other vaccines are stored to ensure their integrity and safety before distribution across the country.

BOC Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero vowed the BOC’s continuing commitment to support the COVID-19 vaccination program of the national government by giving assurance of the immediate processing of legitimately imported vaccines while protecting the country’s borders against all fraudulent attempts to import unregistered vaccines and related medical goods.

NAIA District Collector Mimel Talusan stressed that amid the continuing threat of COVID-19, active coordination and cooperation with concerned government agencies are continuously undertaken to further streamline and improve clearance processes of COVID-19 vaccines and related medical goods as the agency’s intangible contribution to the nation’s quest to combat the deadly disease.