New Zealand has launched its Covid-19 vaccination programme but warned the initial rollout was only a small step in the long battle against the pandemic.

The Pacific nation has been widely praised for its handling of the coronavirus and has seen just 26 deaths in a population of five million.

“It's the start of what we might call a new chapter but we still have a long way to go,” said Ashley Bloomfield, the country's director-general of health, according to AFP.

The rollout marked a “small but important step in a long journey”, he added, with the initial focus on high-risk citizens and those returning from overseas, along with border and quarantine workers.