MANILA - Philippine authorities have vowed to allocate an additional 4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Metro Manila, as authorities reintroduced tougher lockdown measures in the region for 2 weeks to halt the spread of the more contagious Delta variant.

Local chief executives in the capital region, home to 13 million residents, earlier requested for an additional 4 million virus jabs should the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) be imposed.

The ECQ in the National Capital Region (NCR) will start on Aug. 6 and will last until Aug. 20.

• NCR under ECQ from Aug. 6-20 to curb COVID-19 Delta variant spread: Palace

"Humihingi ang [National Capital Region] ng 4 million doses, ‘yan ay ibibigay na ng national government sa NCR. Ipinangako na ni Sec. [Carlito] Galvez na 4 million doses combination ng iba't ibang bakuna ibibigay sa NCR nitong mga susunod na linggo,” Sec. Vince Dizon, National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19’s deputy chief implementer, said on Saturday.

(The NCR asked for 4 million doses, and that is what we will give to them. Sec. Galvez promised that some of the different vaccines arriving in the next coming weeks will be allocated to them)

“Four million yan. At magbibigay din ng 2.5 million sa [NCR] plus, sa iba't ibang probinsya sa NCR plus,” Dizon added.

(That’s 4 million, and we will also give additional 2.5 million in the NCR Plus areas)

In a public briefing, NTF Spokesperson retired Gen. Restituto Padilla said the government would also prioritize the arriving COVID-19 vaccines for Metro Manila to protect its population.

"Di ko lang po alam kung eksaktong bilang, ipa-prioritize po ang arriving vaccines sa NCR, nang para sa ganon ay mapabilis po ang pagpigil po sa pagkalat at maprotektahan po ang ating mga kababayan,” according to Padilla, when asked by a reporter if the 2 million initial allocated doses for the region was enough.

(I am not sure about the exact figures but we will prioritize the arriving vaccines in NCR, so that we will be able to stop the spread of the virus and protect our population.)

“Makakaasa po, mayroong nakalaan po diyan, at maaaring humigit pa po sa sinabing bilang.”

(You can trust us on that. We already allocated vaccines and it can be more than what was said)

The two also echoed Malacañang’s statement that the vaccination will not stop despite tougher lockdown restrictions. In fact, they plan to even have more Filipinos vaccinated from the respiratory disease.

With the 4 million additional shots, the daily vaccination rate in the capital region could reach 250,000, according to Dizon.

"Ang objective natin magbakuna tayo ng mabilis at magpabakuna ng marami. Kung sino gusto magpabakuna, babakunahan natin," he said.

(Our objective is to have more people vaccinated as soon as possible. Whoever wants to get vaccinated should be vaccinated.)

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Video courtesy of PTV

The government has so far administered 19.3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, over 11.5 million of which are first jabs.

A total of 7.8 million Filipinos, meanwhile, are fully vaccinated against the virus, accounting for 13.5 percent of the minimum 58 million target by year end.

The Delta variant is being tagged as behind the surge of infections in India and Indonesia, ripping through the countries’ health care systems.

The Philippines has reported 216 cases of the variant, but health experts say there could be more undetected cases because of the slow pace of the country's genome sequencing.

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The second uptick in the Philippine outbreak peaked in April and after mainly trending low, infections started to rise again in recent weeks.