Coronavirus updates LIVE: Victoria records 76 new COVID-19 cases as AstraZeneca pauses vaccine study; Sydney pub ordered to close as Australian death toll jumps to 781

Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth, has told Nine's Today show it is standard practice to pause vaccine development if something like this happens.

"It certainly does not mean that the Oxford vaccine is in any way dead just because of one adverse reaction. But it is a serious adverse reaction and it needs to be investigated. And what's encouraging here is that despite the accelerated vaccine development, the processes are exactly the same," Dr Coatsworth said.

"The focus on safety is exactly the same and I'm actually taking a lot of reassurance out of these early breaking stories this morning.

"But in particular I'm going to wait to see exactly what the adverse reaction was and whether they do in fact attribute it to the vaccine."

The nature of the safety issue and when it happened is not known, although the participant is expected to recover, according to health website Stat News which first reported the setback.

The report said the suspension of the trial was having an impact on other AstraZeneca vaccine trials - as well as on clinical trials being conducted by other vaccine makers.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday that under agreements his government had struck, Australians could have 3.8 million doses of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine by January or February next year. The first doses would be imported but the rest of 84.8 million shots for Australia and its regional neighbours would be produced in Melbourne.

However, when that claim was put to the British Health Secretary on London talkback radio hours later, Matt Hancock maintained the UK would be ahead of Australia.

"We're ahead of them," Hancock told LBC host Nick Ferrari.