Maharashtra recorded the second-highest one-day spike in new COVID-19 cases even as Mumbai suddenly dropped to the sixth position in the state in terms of the day's casualties, health officials said here on Thursday.
With 14,718 new cases, lower than the record single-day high of 14,888 (August 26), the state's total cases shot up from 718,711 to 733,568 now, and with 355 more fatalities, the death toll rose from 23,089 to 23,444 - both highest among all states in the country.
There was one death roughly every 5 minutes and 613 new cases added every hour to the state's tally, with a load of deaths gradually shifting to non-metro areas.
The state's recovery rate fell from 72.69 per cent to 72.46 per cent, while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 3.02 per cent on Thursday.
Against this, 9,136 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients from 522,427 to 531,563 till date - considerably higher than the 178,234 active cases currently in the state.
Of the 355 fatalities, Pune led the state with 47 deaths, followed by 36 in Nagpur, 32 in Nashik, 31 each in Thane and Nanded, 30 in Mumbai, 27 in Kolhapur - in the higher bracket.
Besides, there were 20 fatalities in Raigad, 18 in Solapur, 17 in Sangli, 10 in Jalgaon - in the middle range.
On the lower side, there were 8 deaths in Ahmednagar, 6 in Aurangabad, 5 in Dhule, 4 each in Jalna, Osmanabad and Bhandara, 3 each in Nandurbar, Latur and Wardha, 2 each in Palghar, Satara, Beed, Akola, Yavatmal, Buldhana, 1 in Hingoli, besides 3 victims from other states.
The day's highlights were a sudden spurt in fatalities from Nagpur, Nashik and Nanded districts while 8 districts reported zero deaths.
Remaining below the 50-range for the second straight week with 30 fatalities, Mumbai's death toll increased from 7,505 to 7,535 and the number of corona cases increased by 1,350 - the second-highest spike this month - to touch 140,888 now.
Of the total 8 circles, the MMR (Thane circle, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains on the edge as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with fatalities shooting up by 83 from 12,438 a day earlier to 12,521 and with 3,505 new infectees, the total cases shot up from 317,358 a day earlier to 320,868 now.
Pune district cases touched 161,945 till date with the fatalities increasing from 3,869 a day earlier to 3,916.
Thane district is at the third spot (after Pune and Mumbai) as it witnessed 127,374 cases and the death toll increased from 3,646 the previous day to 3,677 now.
With 67 more fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 4,897 to 4,964 and the case tally zoomed up by a staggering 4,515 to reach 191,526 now.
Nashik circle recorded 2,148 fatalities and 88,079 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle's 1,063 deaths and 34,949 cases, and Aurangabad circle with 869 fatalities and 29,775 cases.
Next is Latur circle with 695 fatalities and 23,063 cases, Nagpur circle with 686 deaths and 28,763 cases, followed by Akola division's 428 fatalities and 15,848 cases.
Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased by the highest 55,308 - catapulting from 12,68,924 to 13,24,232 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down marginally from 33,644 to 33,641 on Thursday.
