The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Tuesday that it has received an application for conditional marketing authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by England's University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

Conditional marketing authorization is the process used to speed up the approval of treatments and vaccines amid public health emergencies. The EMA said the assessment of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine "will proceed under an accelerated timeline," and that an opinion on whether to issue an authorization could be announced by Jan. 29.

"If EMA concludes that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh its risks in protecting against COVID‑19, it will recommend granting a conditional marketing authorisation," the agency said in a statement Tuesday. "The European Commission will then fast-track its decision-making process with a view to granting a conditional marketing authorisation valid in all EU and EEA Member States within days."

Russia has extended its suspension of air travel with the United Kingdom through Feb. 1 amid growing concerns over a new, more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus.

"For the purpose of protecting public health, the restrictions have been extended through 11:59 p.m. on February 1, 2021," Russia's coronavirus response headquarters said in a statement Tuesday.

The ban was first imposed in late December.

The move comes after Russia confirmed its first cases of a new, highly infectious strain that is thought to have emerged in England late last year. The variant, called B117, is currently prevalent in London and other parts of southeastern England, and has since spread to more than a dozen other countries.

With more than 3.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, Russia has the fourth-highest tally of diagnosed infections in the world, followed by the U.K., according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Russia's coronavirus response headquarters confirmed 22,934 new cases and 531 additional deaths from the disease on Monday, bringing the cumulative total to 3,448,203 cases with 62,804 deaths.

ABC News' Tanya Stukalova contributed to this report.

Authorities arrested 182 people in Southern California's Los Angeles County on Saturday during a crackdown on underground "super-spreader" parties in the area.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said the arrests, which were cited out, occurred at two commercial buildings.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva "has made it clear he will seek out & take law enforcement action against ALL underground party events occurring anywhere within Los Angeles County, who fall under the Health Orders of the County’s Department of Public Health," the sheriff's department wrote on Twitter.

"The goal of these enforcement actions is to reduce the spread of #COVID19 and the risk to our vulnerable populations," the department tweeted.

There were 204,652 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Monday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

It's the seventh straight day that the country has reported more than 200,000 newly confirmed infections. Monday's tally is less than the all-time high of 302,506 new cases, which the country logged on Jan. 2, Johns Hopkins data shows.

An additional 1,731 new deaths from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide Monday, down from the country's peak of 4,194 fatalities on Jan. 7, according to Johns Hopkins data.

COVID-19 data may be skewed due to possible lags in reporting over the holidays followed by a potentially very large backlog.

A total of 22,429,685 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 376,280 of them have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.

Much of the country was under lockdown by the end of March as the first wave of pandemic hit. By May 20, all U.S. states had begun lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions put in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The day-to-day increase in the country's cases then hovered around 20,000 for a couple of weeks before shooting back up over the summer.

The numbers lingered around 40,000 to 50,000 from mid-August through early October before surging again to record levels, crossing 100,000 for the first time on Nov. 4 and reaching 200,000 for the first time on Nov. 27.

Pope Francis and his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.

"I can confirm that as part of the Vatican City State vaccination program to date, the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to Pope Francis and the Pope Emeritus," Bruni said in a statement Thursday.

Francis, who turned 84 last month and had part of a lung removed when he was younger, reportedly received the shot Wednesday while Benedict, 93, reportedly got it Thursday.

Vatican City, an independent enclave surrounded by Rome that serves as the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church, launched the immunization campaign on Wednesday, administering doses of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.

The tiny city-state has a population of only around 800 people but employs more than 4,000. It's unclear how many doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine have been procured so far.

Vatican City citizens, along with employees and pensioners, will have the opportunity to receive the vaccine as well as family members who are entitled to use of the city-state's health care system. Priority is being given to health care workers, public safety personnel, the elderly and individuals who are most frequently in contact with the public, according to Bruni.

The vaccination campaign is voluntary and people under the age of 18 are being excluded for the time being, Bruni said.

Since the start of the pandemic, Vatican City has reported at least 27 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

ABC News' Phoebe Natanson contributed to this report.