Wellington: New Zealand will begin offering free COVID-19 vaccines to its entire population by the middle of next year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Thursday.

Ardern said the country had secured enough vaccines to inoculate all of the country’s 5 million people as well as Pacific island nations, including the Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu, if they choose to accept the offer.

The rollout counts on 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.