Customs bureau: Over 500,000 Sinovac vaccine doses arrived in PHL on Sunday

The Bureau of Customs said it cleared over 500,000 Sinovac vaccine doses over the weekend./Customs bureau/

(Eagle News) – Over 500,000 Sinovac vaccine doses arrived in the Philippines on Sunday.

The Bureau of Customs said the vaccine doses consigned to the Department of Health arrived via flight no. PR 361 from Beijing, China.

The vaccines underwent pre-arrival clearance process through NAIA One-Stop-Shop and were cleared for release within 15 minutes.

The shipment was immediately transferred to the Metropac facility “to ensure the integrity and security of the vaccines prior to distribution,” the bureau said.

With the additional vaccine doses, the bureau said it has so far cleared and released over 3.02 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines imported by the DOH.

The Philippines COVID-19 vaccination drive is ongoing amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The surge prompted the Palace to re-impose an enhanced community quarantine over the Greater Manila Area in March.

The reimposed ECQ was supposed to end on April 4 but this was extended for another week.

On April 11, the Palace announced the Greater Manila Area, also collectively called as the NCR Plus area, would be under a modified ECQ until the end of April.