British health authorities reported 41,385 new COVID-19 cases Monday, the highest daily rise since the pandemic began. Over the last seven days, 256,220 people tested positive, which is a 25.7% increase in positive tests since the week prior.

England's Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said last week that the newly identified U.K. variant is more dominant and significantly more transmissible than the old coronavirus variant.

There’s no evidence the new variants are more deadly and it’s highly likely the vaccine will still work, experts said at a virtual Q&A hosted by the World Health Organization last week.

In total, the U.K. has reported 2,329,730 infections and 71,109 deaths from the virus.

-ABC News' Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.

One out of 17 Americans, a total of 19 million people, have tested positive for coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. One in 1,000 have died from the virus.

Since some states don't report and others give incomplete updates over the holidays, last week's data doesn't provide an up-to-date picture of the U.S. outbreak. But even without those numbers, December's forecast remains grim, according to an ABC News analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project.

Since Dec. 1, there has not been a single day with less than 1,000 COVID-19 related deaths reported, the data showed.

The United States logged more than 5.4 million COVID-19 cases in December, more than any month on record and roughly equivalent to 70 Americans testing positive for the virus every 30 seconds.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

New Jersey vaccinated its first nursing home resident, a 103-year-old resident of Roosevelt Care Center in Old Bridge Monday.

Mildred Clements, a Newark native who has lived through two pandemics, was met by a round of applause from the governor and state health commissioner after receiving her shot. Residents and staff at roughly 90 long-term care facilities in New Jersey are slated to start vaccinations Monday, according to the governor's office.

-ABC News' Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Sunday saw the highest number of people screened at the airport since the pandemic hit, a spokesperson tweeted Monday.

The 1,284,599 people screened at airports nationwide marks the sixth day in the last 10 with more than 1 million airline screenings. "If you choose to travel, please wear a mask," Lisa Farbstein, the TSA spokesperson, wrote on Twitter.

-ABC News' Michael Kreisel contributed to this report.

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.