Dr. Anthony Fauci, US’s top infectious disease expert, on Monday said that the enrollment in Moderna Inc’s late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trial would finish by the end of summer this year. “COVID-19 vaccine is possible by October but more likely for November,” Fauci said to reporters.

His statement comes after the world’s biggest coronavirus vaccine test got underway on Monday with 30,000 planned volunteers. He also said that he is “not particularly concerned” about the safety risk of the potential coronavirus vaccine by Moderna.

“It’s a novel technology. We are certainly aware of the fact that that there’s not as much experience with this type of platform as there are with other standards,” he said, reported CNBC. He also hoped the vaccine to have an efficacy of at least 60 per cent.

“Obviously, we would like to see it much, much higher. But 60% is the standard that you do for the cutoff. That’s not unusual,” he said. “I would like to see the highest percentage that we could possibly get,” he said.  He called the vaccine trials a “truly historic event in the history of vaccinology.”

The vaccine is developed by Moderna Inc in collaboration with National Institutes of Health.