326,400 doses of Moderna vaccine arrive at NAIA

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines yesterday received another 326,400 doses of the United States’ Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from the COVAX Facility.

The shipment arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 around 3:30 p.m. via Singapore on Singapore Airlines flight SQ 912.

The One-Stop Shop of the Bureau of Customs-NAIA processed, cleared and released the 326,400 doses of Moderna vaccine after representatives from the Department of Health and Food and Drug Administration presented documents on the shipment.

Of the 326,400 doses procured by the private sector, 224,400 will go to the government while 102,000 will go to the Razon-led International Container Terminal Services Inc.

The country now has a total of 3,826,860 Moderna doses, with 3,000,060 doses donated, 568,800 government-procured and 258,000 procured by the private sector.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. said the newly arrived Moderna vaccines would be deployed in the National Capital Region and other areas experiencing a spike in COVID-19 infections.

As of yesterday, Galvez said 11.2 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated, representing 15.88 percent of the target eligible population and 10.13 percent of the country’s total population.

On Aug. 3, President Duterte personally received over three million doses of Moderna vaccines donated by the US to the Philippines through the COVAX Facility.

The immediate facilitation of essential goods such as SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is part of the Bureau of Customs’ support to the vaccination program of the national government, BOC-NAIA district collector Mimel Talusan said.

As of now, more than 37 million vaccines have already been facilitated by the bureau, 19.5 million of which are Sinovac, 7.7 million AstraZeneca, three million J&J, 350,000 Sputnik V, three million Pfizer and almost four million Moderna.

Seventeen million more Moderna vaccines are expected to arrive in the coming weeks under the tripartite supply agreement with Moderna Inc., which the Philippines signed last March.