A coronavirus vaccine trial in the US has now given a dose to its first participant, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases announced Monday.

The study aims to select an aggregate of 45 adults over a 6-week time period. Each participant will get two injections about a month apart in varying dosages.

At present, there is no vaccine for coronavirus.

The study, which is a Phase I trial, is meant to establish that the vaccine is safe and induces the desired response from participants’ immune systems. Proving that the vaccine is effective in preventing Covid-19 infection, however, will require follow-up studies involving many more participants, which will take many more months, experts say.

The organization acknowledged the speed for which it stood up a Phase I trial to its earlier investigations on coronaviruses SARS and MERS. Researchers had recently worked on an experimental MERS vaccine targeting a protein on the virus’s surface, which gave them a “head start for building up a vaccine candidate to protect against Covid-19,” the announcement said.

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