Trials for one of the world's leading coronavirus vaccines has found it to be more than 90 per cent effective.
Developers say "it’s a great day for science and humanity" and it’s hoped it could get the sign off from regulators by the end of the month, with 50 million doses expected to be ready by the end of the year.
American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German company BioNTech joined forces in the race to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 after final stage trials that involved more than 43,500 people in the US, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Turkey.
The companies have announced preliminary results that showed it could protect more than 90 per cent of people with no safety concerns.
In a statement Pfizer said, "the results demonstrate that our mRNA-based vaccine can help prevent Covid-19 in the majority of people who receive it".
"This means we are one step closer to potentially providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global pandemic."
Since the news broke, the UK government will order 10 million more Pfizer coronavirus vaccines.
In a televised address from Downing Street, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson gave a cautious welcome to the vaccine and told Brits they cannot rely on this news as a solution and warned the nation against slackening its resolve at a critical moment.
"I must stress that these are very, very, early days .. the scientific calvary is coming over the brow of the hill, I can tell you tonight that toot, that bugle is louder but it’s some way off".
Johnson warned that he hadn’t seen the full safety data and the findings also needed to peer reviewed.
In October, the New Zealand government signed an agreement to purchase 1.5 million Covid-19 vaccines – enough for 750,000 people, with delivery potentially as early as the first quarter of 2021.
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