Mumbai, May 3 (IANS): The Maharashtra Covid-19 positive cases continued to increase without respite and hovered at 12,974 while Mumbai Metropolitan Region crossed 10K cases with 27 new deaths on Sunday, the eve of lockdown 3.0, health officials said.

With 27 casualties, the state death toll shot up from Saturday's 521 to 548 today and the total number of Coronavirus patients increased by 678 from 12,296 yesterday to 12,974 today, sparking huge concerns among the health authorities.

Of the total deaths notched today, 21 were recorded in Mumbai, taking the city toll from 322 to 343 and the number of Covid-19 positive patients in the city shot up from yesterday's 8,359 to 8,800 -- a considerable jump of 441 new cases.

Besides Mumbai's 21 deaths, Pune recorded 4 fresh casualties, 1 in Bhiwandi (Thane) and 1 in Navi Mumbai (Raigad).

Among the 27 casualties today, there were 16 men and 11 women, and nearly half of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Thane Division) continued to cause big worries with 371 Covid-19 deaths and 10,223 patients.

Pune Division trails a distant second with 114 casualties and 1,549 patients.

The next area of concern is Nashik Division with 30 deaths and 413 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 10 deaths and 268 patients, and finally the Akola Division with 12 casualties and 198 patients.

On the positive side, 115 fully cured patients returned home today, taking the number of those discharged to 2115.

Meanwhile, the number of people in home quarantine increased from yesterday's 174,933 to 181,382 and those in institutional quarantine increased from 12,623 to 13,158 today, and the state's containment zones increased from yesterday's 844 to 997 today.

From midnight tonight, (May 3-4), a relatively lenient lockdown 3.0 comes into force with several relaxations on various fronts, including in the Red Zones, though containment zones in the state continue to be under stringent restrictions as before.

While conditional selling of liquor-tobacco products are among those non-essentials permitted, essential services will continue unhampered even in the 997 active containment zones around the state, besides all other existing Covid-19 precautions.