Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she is "torn" over when she will get the COVID-19 vaccine as she wants to protect border workers first - but also wants to send a message the vaccine is safe.
Ardern told The AM Show on Monday her decision to wait was conflicted.
"[Border workers] are at the greatest risk so I want them protected first but equally I want to send a message it's safe."
In her first post-Cabinet briefing of 2021, Ardern told reporters she is aware that a small part of the population is sceptical of the incoming COVID-19 vaccines.
She says skeptics want "as much information as possible".
"We need to reach into those communities where they might be a bit hesitant and give them that reassurance."
On Monday she confirmed she intended to be vaccinated - and would have no problem doing it publicly, as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrsion did.
But she won't be getting one for some time.
"We're starting off nice and steadily so starting with managed isolation workers and once we've got through them and the border workers, then we go to their families," she said.
"From there we move to frontline health care facilities and aged care and then about midway through the year we can start opening up to mass vaccination."
But that all depends on when the pharmaceutical companies deliver on the orders New Zealand has placed.
The vaccination campaign began on Friday, with vaccinators giving themselves the jab, ready to administer them to border workers.
The Government has set aside almost $1 billion from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund to secure access to COVID-19 vaccines. It will be New Zealand's largest immunisation rollout ever.
