The Government has secured a further 8.5 million additional vaccines of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
The purchase order means the Government will have enough vaccine for every New Zealander.
Despite the significant development for the vaccine rollout, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the timeframe remained the same with widespread vaccination only starting in the second half of the year.
The Government has signed an advance purchase agreement for 8.5m additional doses, enough to vaccinate 4.25 million people, Ardern said in the statement announcing the purchase order.
The vaccines are expected to arrive in New Zealand during the second half of the year, Ardern said.
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The new order brings New Zealands total for the Pfizer vaccine to 10m doses. Because the vaccine requires 2 shots to be effective, the 10m doses are enough for New Zealands population of 5m.
This latest order supplements the Governments original agreement with Pfizer for 1.5m doses, enough to vaccinate 750,000 people.
South Auckland GPs were turned away when they tried to get vaccinated at the end of February after spare doses became available.
The decision to make Pfizer New Zealands primary vaccine provider, was based on the fact the Pfizer vaccine has been shown to be about 95 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic infection, Ardern said in a statement.
It also means all New Zealanders will have the chance to access the same vaccine, she said.
The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at ultra-low temperatures to be effective, but Ardern said this challenge would be offset by the fact that New Zealands vaccine roll-out would focus on one vaccine.
Whilst the Pfizer vaccine does need to be kept at ultra-cold temperatures, this challenge is offset by only having to deal with one vaccine, rather than multiple vaccines with multiple protocols. It will simplify our vaccine roll out, Ardern said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
New Zealand currently has purchase agreements with other vaccine providers, these will still be honoured.
With every person who gets vaccinated, New Zealand gets one step closer to moving away from restrictions to manage Covid-19, Ardern said.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said that the Government was looking at how to use doses of the vaccine that werent used in New Zealand. He said these does might end up being redeployed to the Pacific.
Consideration is also being given to how best to use vaccine doses that dont end up being needed in New Zealand.
We are working on options for donating surplus doses across our wider portfolio to the Pacific and developing countries worldwide.
We are committed to ensuring that any doses not needed here are put to good use elsewhere. Options could include delaying delivery to New Zealand, in order to free up supply for other countries in the short-term, or donating spare vaccines to other countries.
We are also working closely with the Realm countries of Niue, Tokelau, and the Cook Islands, as well as our close neighbours Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu to provide access to our vaccine portfolio and provide wider support for vaccine roll-out, Hipkins said