Israel announced that it has begun clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine. Two volunteers have offered to kick start the program, and if they remain healthy over the next couple of days after being inoculated Sunday, 80 more will join the Phase 1 trial.

According to Fox News, if the first phase is successful, a second trial involving 1,000 volunteers will begin in December, followed by a final phase that is scheduled to begin in April 2021 with 30,000 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv where Segev Harel, one of the two first volunteers, received his dose.

“There is a cause for a measure of cautious optimism today,” said Ganz, according to Fox News. Netanyahu added, “I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I see the vaccines in the state of Israel. In this means or another, a vaccine developed here or abroad, we will bring enough vaccines to the Israeli citizens, and we will break free from this pandemic.”

The vaccine has been named “BriLife,” honoring the Hebrew words for health and the importance of the vaccine to life itself. According to The Jerusalem Post, it was developed by the Israeli Institute for Biological Research. The institute has been preparing for six years for an unknown threat such as COVID-19, experts said. As part of its preparations, infrastructures for pathogen identification, tools for rapid and abundant vaccine development, and the establishment of animal models to test for safety and efficacy have been in place for years.