Wellington, Jul 5 (IANS): The largest-ever shipment of Pfizer vaccines against coronavirus arrived in New Zealand two days ahead of schedule thanks to a joint effort by the Ministry of Health, Pfizer and logistics company DHL, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Monday.

The shipment of 150,000 doses landed on Sunday afternoon, Xinhua news agency quoted the Minister as saying.

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, Hipkins said in a statement.

"Staff worked late last night to pack and get the vaccine ready for shipment by road and air to District Health Boards (DHBs) and vaccination centre around the country today.

"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," he added.

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