Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will start producing hundreds of millions of doses of its new coronavirus vaccine by Christmas after Oxford University researchers revealed a scientific breakthrough with the possibility to terminate the pandemic.

The vaccine was on average 70 per cent effective in foiling the disease, according to results from phase three trials.

It’s unknown yet whether New Zealand was in the line for this vaccine.

But New Zealand has already signed two agreements for other vaccines- the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine along with the vaccine from Janssen Pharmaceutica.

Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce on Monday night said vaccination would be mandatory for passengers.

“We are looking at changing our terms and conditions to say that for international travellers, we will ask people to have a vaccination before they can get on the aircraft,” he said.

Please put NFP if you do not want your comment used by Stuff.