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With Alice Miranda Ollstein, Rachel Roubein and Brianna Ehley

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— As if vaccinating the entire country against a deadly virus wasn’t challenging enough, the Biden administration is now grappling with the emergence of more contagious strains of Covid-19.

— Several states are diverting unused vaccine doses reserved for nursing homes to other providers, amid pressure to speed up the pace of immunizations.

— HHS secretary nominee Xavier Becerra is still awaiting his first Senate hearings, where he'll be greeted by hostile Republicans.

WELCOME TO TUESDAY PULSE — where 24 hours after it went public, Forbes' much-questioned bubble on the beach has become the latest Covid casualty. Send tips and (safe) getaway ideas to [email protected].

THE VACCINATION RACE GETS EVEN MORE COMPLICATED — Health officials are racing to keep up with a pair of mutated coronavirus strains that scientists worry could spread faster or prove more resistant to vaccines than their predecessors — further complicating a pandemic response already likely to consume most of President Joe Biden’s first year, POLITICO’s Sarah Owermohle and Adam Cancryn report.

Biden on Monday expanded international travel restrictions to include limits on South Africa, where one of the new Covid variants was first identified. The federal government is also collaborating with Moderna to develop new booster shots that could target new Covid variants.

“We’re trying to stay a step ahead of the game, rather than waiting for something to happen and reacting,” Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, told POLITICO.

THE MUTATIONS aren’t unexpected — but they’re certainly unwelcome. The U.S. is still struggling to stop the common strain of Covid-19, and adding the new variants to the mix could prolong measures needed to contain the pandemic.

The variant first spotted in the U.K. is more transmissible than others, while early data on the variant discovered in South Africa suggests it could be less vulnerable to existing vaccines. A third strain found in Brazil shares similar mutations with the strain found in South Africa.

Health officials and drug companies now need to ensure their science keeps pace, while also juggling the ongoing vaccine rollout.

THE POSSIBILITY THAT a new mutation or logistical disruption could derail the response has Biden officials on edge. The White House is increasingly confident it will keep its core promise of 100 million shots in the first 100 days — so much so that Biden effectively upped the goal on Monday to 1.5 million shots a day.

Yet at the same time, the administration has spent its first days in office waging a concerted — and at times, contradictory — campaign to manage expectations for a return to pre-pandemic life. That pessimism marks a sharp departure from Biden’s pre-election declarations that he was the candidate who could “shut down” the virus.

Instead, Biden officials in their first week in office have blamed the Trump administration for leaving behind a situation “worse than we could’ve imagined,” as press secretary Jen Psaki put it — despite citing few specifics or actual roadblocks. They also claim to still not know how many vaccine doses exist in the U.S.

And even as Biden suggested Monday that anyone who wants a vaccine could get one by this spring, he issued a stark warning: “There’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

STATES CLAW BACK UNUSED SHOTS FROM NURSING HOMES — Several states are reclaiming a portion of unused vaccines from CVS and Walgreens pharmacies that were intended for long-term care facilities, POLITICO’s Rachel Roubein and Brianna Ehley report.

State officials say the tens of thousands of shots have been sitting idle, even as officials speed through the separate shipments meant for other priority groups. That’s prompted them to try to fix the supply mismatch on the fly:

— Utah is halting new shipments for long-term care facilities and has so far redistributed 8,775 shots to local health departments and other providers.

— Minnesota is diverting 30,000 doses teachers and childcare providers, newly eligible for vaccination.

— Michigan is sending 120,000 shots from long-term care facilities to other providers.

TODAY: ZIENTS TO BRIEF GOVERNORS — Biden administration officials, including Covid chief Jeff Zients, will hold a call with state leaders today, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who also chairs the National Governors Association.

— The White House will begin regular Covid briefings. Biden’s Covid response team will hold its first press conference on Wednesday, Psaki announced, marking the start of thrice-weekly updates on the federal government’s pandemic efforts.

BECERRA’s HEARINGS HELD UP — The Senate HELP Committee is holding off on tentative plans for Becerra’s Senate hearings, amid a leadership stalemate over the filibuster, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports.

The health panel traditionally holds a hearing on the HHS pick before the Senate Finance Committee votes on confirmation. Those plans were disrupted by lengthy haggling over Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's demand that Democrats commit to preserve the filibuster — though McConnell indicated late Monday that he would back down.

The Finance Committee, meanwhile, confirmed that it’s received and is now reviewing all of Becerra’s required paperwork, but has yet to set a hearing date of its own.

— McConnell also signaled plans to fight Becerra’s confirmation. The top Senate Republican on Monday called Becerra “famously partisan.”

“His recent experience in health policy seems largely limited to promoting abortion on demand and suing groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor, who dare to live out their religious convictions,” McConnell said in a floor speech, referring to Becerra’s defense of Obamacare’s contraception mandate during his time as California attorney general.

COLORADO COVID ADVISER TO JOIN HHS — Kacey Wulff will return to HHS as chief of staff in HHS’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis' office said Monday.

Wulff has spent most of the past year as a senior adviser to the state’s Covid response. She’ll be one of a slew of Obama administration alumni to return to the federal government; Wulff was a policy adviser at ASPR before becoming the Obama HHS’ director of outreach and enrollment.

JOYCE ROGERS was named Pfizer’s vice president of U.S. policy and public affairs. Rogers joined the drug company from nonprofit health system Advocate Aurora Health, where she was the chief government affairs officer.

BEN KENNEY is joining Coherus BioSciences. Kenney, who did stints as external affairs director in the Trump health department and CMS, will be a government affairs director at the company. Coherus also hired AMANDA MAJOR as a government affairs director. She was previously the federal affairs manager for the Children’s Hospital Association.

Humana has appointed NWANDO OLAYIWOLA as chief health equity officer. In the newly created role, Olayiwola will focus on health equity initiatives across the health care company’s business.

Philadelphia cut ties with a group supervising the city’s largest vaccination site after the group failed to disclose the personal information it was gathering from residents could be sold, the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Ellie Silverman, Ellie Rushing and Oona Goodin-Smith report.

The Biden administration will halt a last-minute Trump plan to let more physicians prescribe the opioid use disorder treatment drug buprenorphine, The Washington Post’s Dan Diamond and Lenny Bernstein report.

The former head of a Canadian casino company chartered a jet to a remote community to receive a Covid vaccine meant for Indigenous residents, Yukon News‘ Haley Ritchie reports.