The race for a coronavirus vaccine has another contender.
A second Covid-19 vaccine appears highly effective in preventing the illness following exposure to the virus.
US biotech company, Moderna, said that its vaccine is 94.5% effective, according to analysis of its clinical trial.
It comes a week after Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine was over 90% effective.
It's welcome news for the public as level 5 lockdown remains in effect for the remainder of the month and case numbers on the rise in counties like Waterford, Leitrim and Offaly.
There are concerns from health professionals as key questions still need to be answered.
The European Commission has already invested hundreds of millions of euro with a number of companies developing vaccines to ensure the availability of almost 800 million doses for EU citizens.
Speaking this morning before the announcement, Professor of Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, Luke O'Neil says it's an amazing result: "If they get the same level of efficacy, that's great result because it means that two completely separate companies have the same outcome and it's independent of each other which means the technology is reproduce-able which gives us even more hope".
