Pharmaceutical company Pfizer has had its first complete set of results back and says its coronavirus vaccine is better than originally thought at 95% effective.

Data collected from a late-stage trial of the vaccine show that it prevents mild and severe forms of Covid-19 – and is also 94% effective in older adults.

Pfizer and its partner company BioNtech say they now intend to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization within the next few days, bringing the reality of a working vaccine an important step closer.

If the treatment is authorized, Pfizer has said it could have up to 50 million doses available by the end of this year – some 10 million doses are expected to arrive in the UK.

Meanwhile another vaccine has begun trials in the UK. The jab designed by Belgian company Janssen uses a genetically modified common cold virus to train the immune system.