Coronavirus updates: US reports nearly 300,000 new cases in all-time high

More than 1,600 fines have been issued and several people have been arrested following a days-long, illegal New Year's Eve party in northwestern France, authorities said.

Despite a national nighttime curfew and other strict measures in place due to the coronavirus pandemic, some 2,500 people attended the rave on Thursday night in an empty warehouse located in the small village of Lieuron in France's scenic Brittany region, a popular vacation spot. Some partygoers clashed with local police when they tried to shut down the illegal rave, injuring several officers and damaging their vehicles, according to authorities.

The violence prompted officers to await reinforcements from the National Gendarmerie before moving in and putting an end to the party Saturday morning, as revellers finally began to disperse, authorities said.

At least five people, including the two organizers of the rave, have since been taken into custody. Trucks, various sound equipment, narcotics and large sums of cash have also been seized from the site, according to authorities.

The new, more contagious strain of the novel coronavirus, which is sweeping rapidly across London and other parts of southeast England, has been detected in California's San Bernardino County, officials said.

The latest variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 was found in two members of the same household in the Big Bear area who were tested on Dec. 20, according to a press release from the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. One of them had contact with a traveler who returned from the United Kingdom on Dec. 11 and began showing symptoms three days later.

Four other cases of the fast-moving strain, known as B117, have been detected in San Diego County.

"Based on the information currently available, we know that the B117 variant strain seems to spread more easily and quickly," Dr. Michael Sequira, San Bernardino County public's health officer, said in a statement Friday. "Therefore, following all safe practices is more important than ever."

Experts say there's currently no evidence that the variant is deadlier or causes more severe illness, or that existing vaccines are less effective against it.

The new strain was announced in England in late December and then confirmed in the United States for the first time on Tuesday, after a case was detected in Colorado.

More than 4 million people in the United States have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of 9 a.m. ET on Saturday, 13,071,925 vaccine doses had been distributed nationwide and 4,225,756 doses had been administered, according to the CDC COVID Data Tracker.

The doses include both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.

India's drugs regulator granted an emergency use authorization for two COVID-19 vaccines on Sunday.

One is the British-developed Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is being produced locally by the Serum Institute of India, and the other, Covaxin, was developed by Indian biotechnology company Bharat Biotech. Both vaccines, which will be administered in two doses, "are being approved for restricted use in emergency situations," Drugs Controller General of India, Dr. Venugopal G Somani, said during a press conference Sunday.

Somani said the decision to approve the vaccines was made after "careful examination," by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, the national regulatory body in India for pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the approval, calling it a "defining moment."

"It is a matter of pride that the two vaccines that have been approved for emergency use are both made in India," Modi wrote on his official Twitter account Sunday. "This reflects the will of our scientific community to fulfill the dream of a self-reliant India."

The first phase of India's mass immunization plan aims to vaccinate 300 million people by August, including health care workers, police officers and anyone deemed vulnerable due to their age or health conditions.

The country of nearly 1.4 billion people has the second-highest tally of diagnosed COVID-19 cases in the world, behind only the United States. Since the start of the pandemic, India's Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has reported more than 10.3 million confirmed cases, including at least 149,435 deaths.