Your Evening Briefing: Black Retires as Apollo Clears Him in Epstein Matter

Moderna plans to begin human studies of a booster shot for its vaccine to help protect against a more-transmissible South Africa variant of the coronavirus, one of several newly discovered strains. The World Health Organization is warning that vaccine coverage won’t be able to stop transmission for the foreseeable future. In the U.S., Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations are receding from the most recent holiday wave, and New York and California are lifting some restrictions. But localized outbreaks are still raging. This pattern is a preview of the landscape in the months to come. Here’s the latest on the pandemic. —David E. Rovella

Bloomberg is tracking the progress of coronavirus vaccines while mapping the pandemic globally and across America.