New Zealand's largest shipment of Pfizer vaccines has arrived two days ahead of schedule, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has announced.

The shipment of 150,000 doses touched down late on Sunday afternoon.

It comes as concerns were raised that the country was on the verge of running out of vaccines.

New Zealand had distributed nearly all of its supply of the Pfizer vaccine in storage, giving DHBs enough stock to last until Wednesday.

The Government confirmed in June that about a million doses of the Pfizer vaccine would arrive in during July and would arrive in several shipments throughout the second half of the month.

Hipkins said the vaccines were taken straight from the tarmac at Auckland Airport to the storage and distribution centre, where quality checks were carried out to ensure ultra-low temperatures were maintained during the flight and that none of the vials were 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,” Chris Hipkins said in a statement.

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“With our first July shipment safely on the ground and 1 million dose

He said the early arrival meant no DHB would 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.”

The Ministry of Health had been in constant contact with Pfizer and the company helped secure an earlier release of the vaccines, he said.

DHL also planned a route with the quickest transit times to get the vaccines to New Zealand quickly and safely.

"Our goal is to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19 and vaccination is an important part of that,”he said.

s arriving this month, over the coming weeks we can start to ramp up the number of vaccines being administered.”