Fresh vaccine shipment arrives at Naia
AFRESH shipment of 1.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccine from Beijing arrived at 7:31 a.m. on Thursday at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) onboard Cebu Pacific Flight 5J671.
A second shipment of 1 million doses of Sinovac vaccines is expected to arrive today, Friday, July 30, 2021.
The airport Customs district (BOC-NAIA) has already given its stamp of approval for the release the 2 shipments prior to arrival after representatives from the Department of Health (DOH) and the Food and Drug Administration presented advance copies of the shipment.
BOC-NAIA also cleared some 324,090 doses of Pfizer-biontech Covid-19 vaccine, which arrived last Monday, July 26, 2021, on board Air Hong Kong Flight AHK/LD457 around 9:20 p.m. at Naia’s Terminal 3.
All Covid-19 vaccines were processed at the Port of Naia’s One Stop Shop.
Meanwhile, the local government of Marikina City on Wednesday guaranteed the safety of Covid-19 vaccines being stored at their cold-chain facility amid the flooding and inclement weather being experienced in Metro Manila in recent days.
Mayor Marcy Teodoro told radio station DZBB that the vaccines are safe from floods as the cold-chain storage area is located on the second floor of the building.
“This cold-chain facility has been elevated in advance following a scenario that the area would be subjected to flooding,” Teodoro said, adding that Pharmaserv Express has a prepared set of protocols in case the vaccines need to be transferred to another storage area.
Teodoro explained that the vaccines are being distributed on the same day or the following day to various local government units in Metro Manila and to the provinces.
Teodoro said their cold-chain facility is also prepared for power interruptions with its backup generators sufficient to maintain required temperatures for vaccines.
Earlier, Health Secretary Francisco Duque assured the public that Covid-19 vaccines stored in the Marikina warehouse were not affected by floods.
He explained that all of contingencies, such as floods and brownouts, have been covered before the DOH entered into an agreement with Pharmaserv Express.