The national government has secured the delivery of an additional 813,150 doses of Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Wednesday night, August 11.

The National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 said in an advisory that the shipment carrying the procured vaccines will arrive at Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City around 9:20 p.m.

The allocation of Pfizer jabs will be divided into three, with Cebu and Davao each receiving 102,960 doses while the remaining 607,230 doses will go to Luzon.

This will be the third tranche of procured Pfizer shots that will be delivered into the country by the American vaccine manufacturer.

A total of 562,770 doses of Pfizer were transported from July 21 to 22 while another 375,570 doses were shipped on July 26.

Aside from the procured jabs, the national government also received 2,472,210 doses of Pfizer as donations from the global vaccine sharing initiative, COVAX facility.

Once the latest Pfizer delivery is completed, the country's vaccine supply will increase to more than 39.4 million doses.

The delivery is seen as part of the NTF's efforts to gather more vaccines as the national goverment tries to speed up the inoculation program and counter the current surge believed to have been caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Last Monday, vaccine czar and NTF Chief Implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. said they would seek to hasten the vaccination program in Central Visayas (Region 7); SOCCSKSARGEN which covers South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City (Region 12); and Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) to protect them from the current surge.

The three regions have the lowest percentage of fully vaccinated residents, registering below 10 percent of their total population, according to data from the NTF.

This puts them at a bigger risk in case of a surge as fewer people in these areas have an additional layer of protection against COVID-19.

As of Aug. 8, Region 12 has fully vaccinated 301,632 individuals (9.77 percent) out of its total 3.09 million population; Region 7 with 487,640 fully vaccinated individuals (9.42 percent) out of 5.18 million population; and BARMM with 144,176 fully vaccinated individuals (6.22 percent) out of total 2.32 million population.

"Ito po ay gagawan po natin ng paraan para makapag-increase ng kanilang tinatawag na percentage lalong-lalo na itong sa Region VII dahil sa ngayon po ay nagkakaroon po ng surge (We will find a way to increase their percentage especially in Region VII because we are now experiencing a surge)," Galvez said.

The top three regions with the highest percentage of fully vaccinated population were the National Capital Region (NCR), Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and Caraga (Region 13).

NCR has fully vaccinated 3,897,152 individuals (40.57 percent) out of its total 9.61 million; CAR with 253,213 fully vaccinated individuals (21.43 percent) out of 1.18 million population; and Caraga with 275,618 fully vaccinated individuals (16.26 percent) out of 1.70 million population.