Health Minister Greg Hunt has hailed the publication of vaccine trial results as great news for Australia.
The results of a clinical trial of the vaccine produced by AstraZeneca and Oxford University - now under production at CSL in Melbourne - have become the first to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
The study in the Lancet showed the vaccine was generally safe, as only three of the 24,000 respondents developed severe side effects over three and a half months.
It was also unclear whether the side effects were due to the vaccine.
Mr Hunt said they were fundamentally important results, ahead of an expected vaccine rollout early next year.
"That's great news for Australia," he told parliament on Wednesday.
"The AstraZeneca vaccine is being produced as we sit here in parliament in Melbourne, by CSL.
"These things are critical for saving lives and protecting lives and giving us a strong 2021."
There are 10 vaccines in phase three trials and three of those are subject to Australian agreements.
Australia recorded no cases of community transmission on Wednesday, as the world notched up more than 68 million cases and 1.55 million lives lost.
"We'll not be truly safe as a nation until the world is safe and safely vaccinated," Mr Hunt said.
The publication of other coronavirus studies has led to calls for the rollout of rapid antigen testing.
Reports published in the New England Journal of Medicine and by a group from the University of Harvard highlighted the benefits of repeat testing and rapid action as a superior strategy to single-sample testing.
Pathology Technology Australia said federal and state health authorities should urgently assess and adopt a broader range of testing, including rapid antigen testing on a daily or near daily basis for those at highest risk.
"This could not only facilitate a reduction in the mandatory 14-day quarantine period for returning Australians, but also be far more effective in preventing workers in the quarantine facilities from transmitting the virus to their families, and thus the broader community."
The organisation said there was support among healthcare professionals for repeat, rapid antigen testing at high risk workplaces - such as hospitals, residential aged care facilities and quarantine hotels - and return travellers in quarantine facilities.
The testing should also be mandatory for arriving flight crews and those who are exempt from quarantine such as embassy staff.
Victoria has notched up 40 days without a new case of coronavirus.
But with up to 1120 international arrivals scheduled each week and the reopening of its hotel quarantine program, the state's clean sheet may be tested.
International flights into Melbourne re-started this week, five months after Victoria's quarantine hotel outbreaks sparked the state's deadly second wave.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has brushed off concerns about the revelation of a quarantine breach in July, when a man arriving from the US skipped hotel quarantine in Sydney before flying to Melbourne.
"Even when people are really good at what they do, mistakes can still happen," she told Sky News.
