Amid fears over new COVID variant, India registers 8,318 fresh cases

The country's active caseload stands at 1,07,019, which is lowest in 541 days.

Active cases account for less than 1 percent of total cases, currently at 0.31 percent, which is the lowest since March 2020.

The recovery rate is currently at 98.34 percent, the highest since March 2020.

A total of 10,967 recoveries were recorded in the last 24 hours, taking the total recoveries to 3,39,88,797.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday will chair a high-level meeting, to be attended by top government officials, on the present COVID-19 situation and vaccination status in the country.

Overall 121.06 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive.

The meeting is scheduled to be held at 10:30 AM and comes at a time when the world is reeling under the threat of the new COVID variant.

The variant was first detected in southern Africa, which has led to a surge in infections in South Africa.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the recently-detected B.1.1.529 strain of COVID-19 as a variant of concern and named it as Omicron.

"Based on the evidence presented indicative of a detrimental change in Covid-19 epidemiology... the WHO has designated B.1.1.529 as a variant of concern (VOC), named Omicron," the UN health agency said in a statement.

This puts Omicron into the most-troubling category of COVID-19 variants besides the globally-dominant Delta.

The variant has also been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong, Israel and Belgium.