'Great day for humanity': Pfizer says Covid-19 vaccine over 90% effective

President-elect Joe Biden said the news was excellent but did not change the fact that face masks, social distancing would be needed well into next year

Pfizer Inc's experimental Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective based on initial trial results, the company said on Monday, a major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has killed over a million people and battered the world's economy.

Experts welcomed the first successful interim data from a large-scale clinical test as a watershed moment that showed vaccines could halt the pandemic though mass roll-outs of the shot, which needs regulatory approval, won't happen this year.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE said they had so far found no serious safety concerns and expected to seek U.S. authorization this