For the second time this month, theres promising news from a COVID-19 vaccine candidate: Moderna said Monday its shots provide strong protection, a dash of hope against the grim backdrop of coronavirus surges in the U.S. and around the world.

Moderna said its vaccine appears to be 94.5% effective, according to preliminary data from the companys still ongoing study. A week ago, competitor Pfizer Inc. announced its own COVID-19 vaccine appeared similarly effective news that puts both companies on track to seek permission within weeks for emergency use in the U.S.

Dr. Stephen Hoge, Modernas president, welcomed the really important milestone but said having similar results from two different companies is whats most reassuring.

That should give us all hope that actually a vaccine is going to be able to stop this pandemic and hopefully get us back to our lives, Hoge told The Associated Press.

It wont be Moderna alone that solves this problem. Its going to require many vaccines to meet the global demand, he added.

A vaccine cant come fast enough, as virus cases topped 11 million in the U.S. over the weekend 1 million of them recorded in just the past week. The pandemic has killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide, more than 245,000 of them in the U.S.

Still, if the Food and Drug Administration allows emergency use of Modernas or Pfizers candidates, there will be limited, rationed supplies before the end of the year. Both require people to get two shots, several weeks apart. Moderna expects to have about 20 million doses, earmarked for the U.S., by the end of 2020. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech expect to have about 50 million doses globally by years end.