The Covid-19 Response Minister says he won't sleep well over the next week, as New Zealand's vaccine levels could drop to "almost zero" ahead of the next shipment.
"Our lowest point would be next Tuesday, but we're also expecting another delivery next Tuesday," Hipkins said.
Current stock is about 30,000, with another shipment that arrived today which has not yet been allocated in supply.
"We've made this decision deliberately but if the deliveries are late it might cause a bit of a headache for us. We don't want vaccine sitting in the freezer as a contingency, but it does mean we are cutting it very fine."
"There is no question that is going to be keeping me awake for the next seven days."
If there was a delay, Hipkins said, "we will pretty much get down to almost zero".
He said New Zealand should expect 'healthy' deliveries of vaccines from the third week of July.
Staggered large shipments of the vaccine were confirmed by Pfizer earlier this month, ahead of the rollout for the general public from the end of July.
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