January 7, 2021, 6:21 PM EST Corrected January 8, 2021, 4:32 PM EST

President-elect Joe Biden says he’ll distribute more of the available doses of coronavirus vaccines, as the U.S. surpassed 4,000 daily fatalities for the first time. New York City has 270,000 unused vaccine doses that it’s seeking to administer to residents over age 75, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Maine broke records for infections and deaths.

London’s mayor declared an emergency as the U.K. reported record fatalities. Germany also reported the most daily deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Key Developments:

Tests Largely Accurate on Virus Variants, FDA Says (2:15 p.m. NY)

The performance of three Covid-19 tests authorized for U.S. use could be affected by the emergence of coronavirus variants, though not significantly, and the overall risk of variants — including one that appears to be more transmissible — affecting testing accuracy is low, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.

The tests in question are Mesa Biotech Inc.’s Accula test, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.’s TaqPath Covid-19 Combo Kit and Applied DNA Sciences’ Linea Covid-19 Assay Kit, according to the FDA, though the agency noted that the latter two tests are designed to detect multiple genetic targets and so their overall sensitivity should not be affected. Those two tests could even help identify new variants early based on their detection patterns, the regulator said.

Applied DNA Sciences Chief Executive Officer James Hayward said in an interview the FDA communication actually suggests his company’s test is “one of the few ways, out of the hundred alternatives, to actually detect the variant.” The test, which is being used in diagnostic laboratories and surveillance efforts, has detected two instances of a coronavirus variant over the last two weeks, he said.