THE fourth Covax shipment of 326,400 doses of Moderna vaccines arrived at 3:30 p.m. last August 8 at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) on board Singapore Airlines flight SQ912.
The One Stop Shop (OSS) of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) at Naia processed, cleared and released the Moderna vaccines after representatives from the Department of Health (DOH) and from Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) presented the pertinent documents regarding the shipment.
From the airport, the vaccines were transported immediately to PharmaServ Express cold storage.
This shipment came just days after the third and the biggest shipment of 300,000 doses of Moderna vaccines donated by the US government arrived last August 3, 2021, at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City.
The immediate facilitation of essential goods such as Covid-19 Vaccines is part of the BoC’s support to the vaccination program of the national government.
Customs District Collector Mimel M. Talusan said more than 37 million vaccines has already been facilitated by the BOC. Of this figure, 19.5 million are Sinovac, 7.7 million are Astrazeneca, 3 million are J&J, 350,000 are Sputnik V, 3 million are Pfizer and almost 4 million doses of Moderna.
About 17 million more Moderna vaccines are anticipated to arrive in the coming weeks and months under the tripartite supply agreement with Moderna Inc., which the Philippines signed in March.