The U.S. recorded another grim new record Thursday in both cases and deaths, as an expected mid-January peak builds around the country.

Hospitals in California indicated they are at or beyond capacity, and health workers must make hard decisions about who gets care and waiving staffing ratio rules in order to ensure more patients can receive care.

The spread of a U.K. variant has also caused concern, as cases are likely to spike by March from the new strain, according to Brown University’s Dr. Ashish Jha.

“It probably represents 1% in U.S. right now. All the models suggest it will become the predominant source of infections by early March,” Jha told Yahoo Finance, adding that if the current administration’s vaccine timeline had been met, the country would be in a better place.

Concerns about the U.K. strain, B.1.1.7, and a strain from South Africa — which has not yet been detected in the U.S.— have prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)to focus on better testing in order to ensure the strains are detected.

On Friday, the FDA said it is working to ensure false negatives from the strain are caught and reported.

“At this time, we believe the data suggests that the currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines may still be effective against this strain. The FDA will continue to keep health care providers and the public informed of any new information as it becomes available,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn.

But some promising news arrived from Pfizer (PFE) and BioNTech (BNTX) Friday, when a non-peer-reviewed study showed the vaccine was effective against one part of the mutation in the U.K. strain.

Each variant of the virus has several genetic mutations that qualify it as a new strain. More studies need to be conducted to determine if the vaccine is effective against the entire variant.

Both Pfizer and Moderna (MRNA) previously indicated they suspect the vaccines will hold against the U.K. strain.

Strategies to speed up vaccinations

Both the current and incoming administrations are aware of the problems posed by a slower-than-expected vaccination rollout, especially as the country is racing against the spread of a more highly transmissible strain of the virus.

The Trump administration has taken a cautious approach, holding doses in reserve to ensure both second doses are available at the necessary interval after first doses have been administered. Hesitancy among some high priority groups has seen a slowdown ini the number of vaccinations, prompting U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams this week, and on Friday FDA’s Hahn, to encourage states to move on to lower priority groups.

The incoming Biden administration, meanwhile, is looking at releasing all available doses, in order to ensure the maximum number of people get vaccinated.

Some experts say this is a gamble, with the risk being that production of vaccines will catch up in time. The risk is largely due to a lack of any available data of the current production capacity of doses— even as the country waits on Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ) and AstraZeneca (AZN)/Oxford’s vaccine.

More from Anjalee:

• To combat vaccine hesitancy in minority communities we must address past wrongs: Surgeon General

• What you need to know about at-home, over-the-counter COVID-19 tests

• Biden COVID-19 adviser: Vaccine news is great, but we still have a ways to go

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