41.6M Covid-19 vax doses cleared since February: BOC

MANILA – The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Saturday reported that it has released over 41.6 million doses of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccines since February.

Based on its latest data, the BOC said China’s Sinovac tops the list with 22.5 million doses, followed by AstraZeneca with 7.85 million; Moderna, 3.83 million; Pfizer, 3.81 million; Johnson & Johnson, 3.24 million; Sputnik V, 365,000 and Hayat-Vax, 100,000.

Last week, a total of 2,590,800 doses of Covid-19 vaccine from three brands arrived in separate batches and were pre-cleared by the BOC-NAIA One Stop Shop prior to its arrival.

Some 15,000 Sputnik V doses and 575,800 AstraZeneca doses arrived on Friday via Qatar Airways Flight QR932 and China Airlines Flight CI701, respectively.

On the other hand, two million doses of Sinovac arrived in the country via Philippine Airlines Flight PR359 at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

All shipments were immediately loaded in reefer vans and were transported to the designated cold storage facility by the Department of Health, underguarded by the Customs-NAIA CoVax Task Force and other enforcement agencies.

On Aug. 11, the BOC also released 810,000 vaccines comprising of 710,000 government-procured Pfizer jabs and 100,000 Hayat-Vax vaccine donated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The Hayat-Vax is the latest Covid-19 vaccine brand to get an emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

The government is expecting over 15 million vaccine doses to arrive in the coming weeks and months.