The Bureau of Customs (BOC)'s Port of NAIA cleared two shipments containing around 3.5 million doses of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines, it announced Saturday, May 8.
Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero said those cleared were 1.5 million doses of CoronaVac vaccines made by Sinovac Biotech from China and 2,030,400 doses of AstraZeneca jabs from British-Swedish manufacturer Oxford-AstraZeneca.
The Sinovac vaccines arrived in the country from Beijing on Friday while the AstraZeneca jabs were delivered from Netherlands a day after.
"Both shipments underwent Customs pre-clearance processes prior to their arrival and facilitated through the NAIA One Stop Shop," the Port of NAIA said in a statement.
Upon arrival, all the vaccines were handed over by the BOC Covax Special Handling Team to Pharmaserv Express for storage in its cold storage warehouse in Marikina City.
BOC NAIA District Collector Carmelita Talusan said they will continue to assist with the expeditious clearance of all time-sensitive vaccines that are arriving in the country.