A crucial delivery of 150,000 Covid vaccines has arrived in New Zealand two days early.
The shipment - the largest in this country to date of the Pfizer vaccine - arrived on Sunday afternoon, two days ahead of schedule.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said this morning she was relieved the vaccines had arrived - otherwise there may have been an issue.
New Zealand had distributed nearly all of its vaccine supply, with all stock expected to have been used by Wednesday.
The Government had made a decision to ramp up its vaccine rollout in July which is why it was not holding any in storage.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the vaccine doses were taken straight from the tarmac at Auckland Airport to a storage and distribution centre.
"The early arrival means no DHB will run out of vaccine. Teams have been working tirelessly to ensure vaccine doses have been getting to the right places to honour all existing appointments, and they've done a fantastic job."
Quality checks will be conducted on the new vaccines to ensure ultra-low temperatures were maintained during the flight and that none of the vials was damaged in transit.
"Staff worked late last night to pack and get the vaccine ready for shipment by road and air to District Health Boards and vaccination centres around the country today," Hipkins said in a statement.
"With our first July shipment safely on the ground and 1 million doses arriving this month, over the coming weeks we can start to ramp up the number of vaccines being administered."
Last week Hipkins had warned that vaccine stocks would be at "almost zero" around today.
In total, the country is due to receive one million doses this month. However, getting the latest vaccines from farm to table - or runway to arm - for New Zealand's 20 District Health Boards in quick fashion could prove difficult.
Nevertheless, those in charge of Auckland's vaccine rollout - the Northern Region Health Co-ordination Centre - are not anticipating any delays as no changes have been made to bookings at any community vaccination centres.
"We have been managing our bookings and supply in Auckland very carefully over the last few weeks across all of our community vaccination centres, general practices and pharmacies to ensure we have enough supply to service all existing bookings," a centre spokesperson said.
Iwi Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei officially opened its vaccination centre in St Johns on June 28.
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei trust board member Tama Davis didn't expect any issues with vaccine supply as the centre slowly built its capacity to about 750 vaccines administered per week.
The NZ Herald has reported on the string of issues Aucklanders have experienced trying to get the jab, including six-week waits for bookings and confusion over walk-ins being vaccinated.
While many have been frustrated by the process, almost all commended the staff at vaccination centres for making the actual vaccination a comfortable experience.
On June 17, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Auckland would be the last DHB to be moved over to the Book My Vaccine national booking system, given the sheer amount of data to be transferred.
However, it seems Ardern's plan may have been changed as the centre spokesperson confirmed all vaccination centres switched to the national system last week.
The Herald understands some DHBs had not transferred to the national system yet.
The Ministry of Health did not respond to questions about this before edition time.
The ministry was also asked whether it expected any vaccination delays across DHBs this week, but it did not respond in time.
Another problem reported by Aucklanders getting vaccinated had been receiving misleading or incorrect text messages and emails, informing people of appointments they didn't have or had cancelled.
It appears this problem has extended to the national system as a "small" number of people were sent texts in error last week, telling them they were in Group 3 and should book their vaccination.
A Ministry of Health spokesperson explained some people may have been surprised to receive a text if their invitation was based on health conditions which were no longer actively treated.
"Some people who received a text confirming they are in Group 3 have told us they are healthy and are happy to wait for their vaccine for now – and that's fine.
"If you are one of these people you don't have to make a booking immediately."
Auckland community vaccination centres (in addition to 32 GPs and two pharmacies):
• Pukekohe
• Manurewa
• Takanini
• Ōtara
• Highbrook, East Tāmaki
• Mt Wellington
• Tāmaki/Glen Innes
• The Atrium, CBD
• Birkenhead
• Albany
• Henderson
• Westgate