New Zealand will begin to offer free Covid-19 vaccines to its entire population by the middle of next year, Reuters quoted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as saying on Thursday.

The government said it had secured enough vaccines to inoculate all of the country’s five million people, with two new agreements signed with pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Novavax.

The agreements secure access to 7.6 million doses from AstraZeneca, enough for 3.8 million people, and 10.72 million doses from Novavax, enough for 5.36 million people. Both vaccines require two doses to be administered.

“It will be New Zealand’s largest immunisation rollout ever,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a news conference. Ardern said the government will vaccinate border staff and rescue workers from the second quarter of 2021, and the general public in the second half of next year.

“Never before has the entire globe sought to vaccinate the entire population at the same time,” Ardern said. “This will be a sustained roll out over months, not weeks, but our pre-purchase agreements means New Zealand is well positioned to get on with it as soon as it is proven safe to do so.”