The government has guaranteed that every New Zealander will have access to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, after securing an additional 8.5 million doses, prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced today.

“The government has signed an advance purchase agreement for 8.5 million additional doses, enough to vaccinate 4.25 million people,” Jacinda said.

“This brings our total Pfizer order to 10 million doses or enough for five million people to get the two shots needed to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19.”

The vaccines are expected to arrive in New Zealand during the second half of the year.

The government’s original agreement with Pfizer was for approximately 1.5 million doses, enough to vaccinate 750,000 people.

The PM said the decision to make Pfizer New Zealand’s primary vaccine provider was based on the fact the Pfizer vaccine has been shown to be about 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection.

“This purchase marks a significant milestone in New Zealand’s fight against Covid-19. We can take heart that we’ve now secured one of the strongest and more effective tools in the Covid-19 toolkit,” she said.

“With every person who gets vaccinated, New Zealand gets one step closer to moving away from restrictions to manage Covid-19.”

Covid-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said the agreement was a significant addition to the country’s Covid-19 vaccine portfolio.

“The Ministry of Health is now working with Pfizer on a delivery schedule for the additional vaccines which will ensure a smooth rollout and a scaling up of our vaccination programme as we start to immunise the general public from the middle of the year,” he said.

He said the government is also working closely with the Realm countries of Niue, Tokelau, and the Cook Islands, as well as Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu to provide access to New Zealand’s vaccine portfolio and provide wider support for vaccine roll-out.

PHOTO: Supplied