Over 20M Covid-19 jabs cleared: BOC

MANILA – The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has processed and cleared over 20 million doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines since February.

In a statement on Saturday, the bureau said this is equivalent to a total of 20,537,360 doses of vaccines from four countries — China, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States.

These include the shipments containing 132,200 doses of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine and 2.028 million doses of AstraZeneca jabs that both arrived in the country on Friday.

Two consecutive arrivals of vaccine importations were facilitated by the BOC-Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the World Health Organization-led COVAX Facility arrived at the NAIA Terminal 3 at around 4:15 p.m. via Flight No. EK332 from Sweden, followed by Russian-made vaccine which arrived at the same terminal at around 10:30 p.m. via Flight No. QR928.

Both shipments underwent customs pre-clearance processes prior to their arrival and were facilitated through NAIA One Stop Shop.

Upon arrival, the Covid-19 vaccines were immediately taken to Covax Special Handling Team to Pharmaserv Cold Storage Facility in Marikina City.

Another 37,800 doses of Sputnik V jabs are set to arrive at the NAIA around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday.

The country has so far received vaccines from Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, Pfizer-BioNtech, and Moderna.