The Pfizer jab reduces the number of symptomatic Covid-19 cases by 94 per cent, an Israeli study has found a day after the first batch arrived in New Zealand.
Isreal has had one of the fastest vaccine rollouts, with 70 per cent of the population receiving at least one jab.
The drop in symptomatic infections was found in 600,000 people who received two doses of the Pfizer's vaccine in the country's biggest study to date.
The comparison was against a group of the same size, with matching medical histories, who had not received the vaccine.
"It shows unequivocally that Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine is extremely effective in the real world a week after the second dose, just as it was found to be in the clinical study," said Ran Balicer, Clalit's chief innovation officer.
He added that the data indicates the Pfizer vaccine, which was developed in partnership with Germany's BioNTech, is even more effective two weeks or more after the second shot.
The vaccines were on a Singapore Airlines flight which landed in Auckland this morning.
Yesterday, 60,000 doses of the vaccine arrived in New Zealand on a Singapore Airlines flight from Belgium.
The vaccine's rollout is planned to start Saturday.
“That’s more than enough doses to vaccinate our frontline workforce over the coming weeks,” Jacinda Ardern said.
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