Nearly 80% of the 47 prefectural capitals in Japan said they either have changed or intend to change their plans to vaccinate their local residents against COVID-19 amid a shortage of vaccines, a Kyodo News survey showed Saturday.

Of the surveyed local governments, 37 said their revised plans include suspending, delaying or scaling back reservations by residents, as the central government's supplies of Pfizer Inc.'s vaccine are not able to meet the pace of their inoculations.

A total of 33 cities, or 70%, said the amount of doses allocated for July remains less than half the desired amount, with Fukui, Okayama and Nagasaki saying they are receiving only about 20% of what they had expected to procure, according to the survey.