Some Metro Manila cities donated 7,500 COVID-19 vaccine shots to prevent infections among thousands of people who fled their homes due to Taal volcano's eruption last week, an official said on Monday.

The shots that the capital region turned over to the Batangas government were all from China's Sinovac Biotech, said Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Benhur Abalos Jr.

"Marami pa po ang maibibigay. Ito po’y pakikiisa ng mga alkalde," he said in a televised public briefing.

(More will be given. This is a show of solidarity of the mayors.)

"Ito po’y hindi pa sobra. Ito’y talagang gagamitin din nila, pero minabuti nila na mas kailangan ng mga kapatid po natin sa Batangas. Kung mag-i-evacuate ka, baka maghalo-halo ang mga tao, kaya dapat talaga unahin na mabakunahan sila," added the official.

(These are not excess jabs. They will use this, but they devided that our brothers and sisters in Batangas need these more. If you evacuate, people may interact, so it's necessary to vaccinate them.)

The MMDA, he said, is ready to send its personnel, fire trucks, generator sets, floodlights and generators, should Batangas need help.

At least 2,000 families fled to evacuation centers after Taal on Thursday spewed a 1-kilometer high plume of gas and steam.

The volcano, which sits in a lake, remains under Alert Level 3 in a 5-level scale, meaning a "magmatic intrusion" at the main crater "could further drive succeeding eruptions," said the state seismology agency.

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Taal is one of the world's smallest active volcanoes. Despite standing at only 311 meters, it can be deadly and an eruption in 1911 killed more than 1,300 people.

In January last year, Taal shot a column of ash and steam as high as 15 kilometers into the sky, which forced more than 100,000 people to abandon their homes, widespread flight cancellations and heavy ash falls in Manila.

• FACING A VOLCANO THEN A VIRUS,

— With a report from Reuters