The Bureau of Customs One Stop Shop (BOC-OSS) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) has beefed up its personnel complement to handle and facilitate the release of tens of millions of doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines expected to arrive in separate batch of shipments by next month.
This was after Cabinet Secretary and Inter Agency for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases co-chairman Karlo Nograles announced the expected delivery of 40 million doses of Pfizer and 20 million doses of Moderna vaccines in September.
In addition, Nograles said, the country is expected to receive in September the rest of the Covid-19 vaccines from Sinovac, of which 21 million doses out of the 25 million doses purchased by the government have already been delivered
Nograles said the vaccines will boost the country’s aim to inoculate 58 million people in Metro Manila and nearby areas to achieve population protection by the end of 2021.
“I assume [that] by September, Sinovac would have completed their deliveries and, at the same time, deliveries of Pfizer and Moderna will ramp up from September…all the way to December,” he added
As the Department of Health’s national third-party storage and logistics partner, PharmaServ Express will assume the responsibility of storing these vaccines in its cold-chain facility in Marikina City before distributing it to various parts of the country, especially in areas with high number of Covid-19 cases.
Meanwhile, Customs authorities at Naia and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a virtual seminar and forum entitled “Webinar on Policies and Procedures of BOC & FDA on Importation of Covid-19 Critical Commodities” held on August 20, 2021 via Zoom Conference and Facebook.
BOC-OSS and its strengthened partnership with the FDA and other regulatory agencies contributed to the port’s seamless clearance of critical commodities into the country.
Keynote speaker, FDA Director-General Undersecretary Rolando Enrique D. Domingo, emphasized the importance of collaboration and cooperation of implementing agencies amid the pandemic.
The topics discussed revolved mainly on Customs clearance process on Covid-19 importations.
Those who responded to the questions raised by stakeholders were Mr. Mark Jhon O. Almase, Subport Collector at Central Mail Exchange Center, Policies and Procedures of FDA on Importation of Health Products by Dra. Iris Conela A. Tagaro, Head of Clinical Research Section, Center for Drug Research and Regulation of FDA. 30
Image courtesy of MIAA Media Affairs Department