As the new coronavirus, COVID-19, continues to spread, we are learning that a vaccine may be getting closer to becoming reality.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the first batch of a rapidly developed, experimental vaccine has been shipped to government researchers in the U.S.

The next step is human trials.

The paper reports that testing could begin as soon as April with the first results coming in July or August.

Government researchers plan to test on 20 to 25 healthy volunteers. They'd test whether two doses of the shot are safe and whether they'd likely to protect against infection.

If the trial begins in April, it will have taken just three months to go from designing the vaccine to human trials.

In the case of SARS, that process took about 20 months.