Mumbai, May 22 (IANS): There was no respite from coronavirus in Maharashtra on Friday with 63 Covid-19 deaths and a staggering new high of 2,940 cases, taking the total number of patients to over 44K, officials said, as the state continued to notch fatalities above 50 and new patients over 2K consecutively for the past six days.

This comes to roughly one death every 23 minutes, and a staggering average 123 new cases recorded every hour in the state today.

With 63 fatalities -- down by 13 from highest 76 notched on May 19 -- the state death toll has crossed the 1,500 mark to now stand at 1,517 and the total number of coronavirus patients increased from 41,642 yesterday to 44,582 today.

The health department said of the total number of cases declared today, 30,474 were 'active cases' -- swelling by 2,020 over yesterday's 28,454.

The Mumbai death toll crossed the 900-mark and of the total 63 fatalities, 27 were recorded here taking the city deaths up from yesterday's 882 to 909 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,751 cases to touch 27,251 today.

Mumbai's crowded Dharavi slum alone continued to be a major red-hotspot and concern for the health authorities, notching 53 new cases today, taking the total number of patients to 1,478, and 57 deaths to date.

Besides Mumbai's 27 deaths, there were 9 in Pune, 8 in Jalgaon, Solapur 5, Thane, Palghar and Aurangabad districts 3 each, Satara 2, and one each in Nashik (Malegaon), Raigad (Panvel) and Nagpur.

They comprised 37 men and 26 women, and nearly 73 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, 857 fully cured patients returned home today, taking the number of those discharged to 12,583.

In a significant decision, the Maharashtra government today decided to take over 80 per cent of all beds in private and charitable hospitals for Covid-19 patients, besides imposing ceilings on hospitalization and treatment for many major diseases, surgeries and other procedures.

The move came after hordes of complaints of exorbitant charges levied by private hospitals, no beds available and other related issues, which would now be resolved, said health officials.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Thane Division) continued to cause huge health concerns with 1,027 Covid-19 deaths and cases shooting to 34,107.

Though trailing a distant second after Mumbai, Pune Division fatalities touched 280, besides 5,729 patients.

The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 103 deaths and 1,513 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 43 fatalities and 1,367 cases, and finally Akola Division with 34 deaths and 672 cases.

There's Latur Division with 6 deaths and 211 cases, Kolhapur Division with 5 deaths and 411 patients, and finally Nagpur Division with 8 deaths and 524 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from 437,304 to 469,275 today -- a huge spurt of 31,971 -- and those in institutional quarantine went up from 26,865 to 28,430, while the state's containment zones remained static at 1,949 on Friday.

As many as 16,154 health teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 66.3 lakhs in the state.