India reported 8,318 new COVID-19 cases today -- 21 per cent lower than yesterday's spike of 10,549 fresh cases -- taking the country's total caseload since the pandemic began to 3,45,63,749, according to health ministry data updated this morning.

The country also reported 465 new fatalities, taking the total Covid deaths in India to 4,67,933.

10,967 recoveries have been reported in the last 24 hours, pushing the total recoveries up to 3,39,88,797. The recovery rate is currently at 98.34 per cent, the highest since March 2020.

At little over a lakh, active cases stand at 1,07,019 after falling by 3,114 cases since yesterday.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 50 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 153 consecutive days now.

Over 121.06 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far under Nationwide Vaccination Drive, the health ministry reported.

Meanwhile, reports of a new Covid variant, named Omicron, surfacing first in South Africa has triggered concerns across the world, with several countries, including the UK, US, Canada, Singapore, Germany, France, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia, among others, imposing travel bans on multiple southern African nations. 

The new strain, declared as a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation, has also been detected in Israel, Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel. It is said to be much more infectious than the Delta variant and the "most heavily mutated" version of coronavirus discovered so far.

Source: NDTV

BDST: 1345 HRS, NOV 27, 2021
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