By Ferdinand Patinio
The latest shipments of COVID-19 vaccines from the United States and China have been cleared by the Bureau of Customs-Ninoy Aquino International Airport (BOC-NAIA).
In a statement, the bureau said the additional 1 million doses of Sinovac vaccines and the first batch of Moderna vaccines consisting of 249,600 doses have been released.
The Chinese-made vaccines arrived around 7:20 a.m. on Monday at the NAIA Terminal 2 via flight 5J 671 from Beijing and were immediately taken to Marikina City.
On the other hand, the Moderna vaccines consigned to the Department of Health (DOH), arrived via Flight No. SQ 918 at the NAIA Terminal 3 at around 11 p.m. Sunday. The shipment was pre-cleared at the BOC-NAIA Covid-19 One-Stop-Shop on June 25.
The arrival of the first batch of American-made vaccines was witnessed by US Embassy officials in the country, National Task Force against COVID-19 (NTF) chief implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. and Health Undersecretary Carolina Vidal-Taiño.
Meanwhile, testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon expressed utmost gratitude to the men and women of the bureau for the hard work and dedication to service since the beginning of the pandemic.
During the recent vaccination program of the BOC, he also recognized the preparations and expeditious process in the clearance of COVID-19 vaccines. (PNA) -rir
