Volunteers in U.S. get first doses of trial vaccine for COVID-19

The first shots in the first vaccine trial for the new coronavirus were administered in the U.S, as a small group of volunteers in Seattle will receive varying doses over the next several weeks to test the safety of the experimental vaccine.

The trial is to include 45 healthy adults ages 18-55 and last for approximately 6 weeks as volunteers will receive two shots about a month apart, USA Today reported.

Developed by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and at the biotechnology company Moderna, Inc., the experimental vaccine uses messenger RNA and "directs the body’s cells to express a virus protein that it is hoped will elicit a robust immune response," the institute said in a news release.

Scientists working on a vaccine for Middle East respiratory syndrome, caused by another coronavirus, were able to develop the COVID-19 experimental vaccine quickly once the genetic information for the new coronavirus became available.