Trials on coronavirus vaccine begin

The US Department of Defense has launched a series of measures to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Army researchers are taking a "whole of government" approach with other agencies to detect, prevent, and treat COVID-19, said Brig. Gen. Michael J. Talley, commander of the Army Medical Research and Development Command and Fort Detrick in Maryland, Report informs citing the official website of the US Department of Defense.

The first phase of testing has already started, testing potential vaccines in mice to see what their response is and making sure it is safe, Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of Emerging Infectious Diseases at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said.

The next phase would be testing in larger animals that are more similar to humans, including monkeys, he said.

Modjarrad said he didn't want to speculate when human testing would begin.