March 17, 2020: US researchers gave the first shot to the first person in a test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine on Monday - leading off a worldwide hunt for protection even as the pandemic surges.

With a careful jab in a healthy volunteer's arm, scientists at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle begin an anxiously awaited first-stage study of a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed in record time after the new virus exploded from China and fanned across the globe.

According to the sources, the first person to get the jab on Monday was a 43-year-old mother-of-two from Seattle.

"We're team coronavirus now," Kaiser Permanente study leader Dr Lisa Jackson said on the eve of the experiment. "Everyone wants to do what they can in this emergency."