A total of 703,170 doses of Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were successfully delivered to the country on Wednesday night, Sept. 1, and these will be distributed in areas outside the National Capital Region (NCR) as part of the government's "recalibrated" deployment strategy.

Air Hong Kong flight LD456 landed on Terminal 3 of Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City at 8:48 p.m. carrying the United States-made jabs.

The vaccines were procured by the government and will be shared by at least nine regions across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, said Sec. Carlito Galvez Jr., vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19.

These regions are Ilocos (Region 1), Cagayan Valley (Region 2), Central Luzon (Region 3), and Calabarzon (Region 4A) in Luzon; the entire Visayas islands namely Western Visayas (Region 6), Central Visayas (Region 7), and Eastern Visayas (Region 8); Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9), and Davao (Region 11) in Mindanao.

"Majority of the allocation will be given to the provinces, to those affected regions... that have been heavily afflicted by COVID-19 and areas that have never been reached by Pfizer," Galvez said during the arrival ceremony.

"We want all municipalities have some sort of dry run so that when majority of the Pfizer will come (sic) by October -- more or less 10 million of which will be delivered each month during October, November, and December -- they are already knowledgeable of how to handle critical supplies like the vaccine of Pfizer," he added.

Luzon will get the majority of the supplies -- 600,210 doses -- while Visayas and Mindanao will get 51,480 doses each.

Prior to its arrival at NAIA, the aircraft dropped the allocation for Visayas at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. It will then fly to Davao International Airport on Thursday morning to bring the supplies intended for the entire Mindanao.

Galvez said the recalibrated deployment strategy forms part of the Phase 4 of the National Action Plan (NAP) on COVID-19 to close the supply gap and address inequity among local government units (LGUs).

He said the NCR may get trickles but these will only be used for the second dose inoculation of its residents as it already fully vaccinated 45.16 percent of its 9.77 million eligible population.

Other regions will have to catch up with NCR's inoculation rate since less than 22 percent of their respective target populations are deemed fully vaccinated, he added.

Meanwhile, John Law, US Embassy Charges d'Affaires, said Pfizer will likely apply for the full authorization of its vaccine in the Philippines so it can be accessed or sold commercially.

"I believe they will. I think certainly all of the producers are going to cooperate with the FDA in the respective countries to ensure all of the safety protocols are followed and the vaccines are authorized for use," he said.

Last week, the US FDA gave full approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for use of individuals aged 16 years old and up which means it can now be sold commercially in America.

The Philippines' FDA said it is now just awaiting Pfizer to coordinate with them for the application of its vaccine's full authorization in the country.

The latest delivery brought the total vaccine supply to 52,603,760 doses. Of these, a total of 5,654,610 doses are Pfizer.