By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, June 3 (IANS): Maharashtra recorded a new high of 122 Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, taking the state toll zooming past the 2,500 mark to touch 2,587 fatalities even as the state grappled with the Cyclone Nisarga fury.

The state recorded its highest single-day death figure on Wednesday, making it the fourth time it has crossed the 100-plus toll in 8 days. The previous high of three-figure tallies were - 103 on June 2, 105 on May 27 and the second-highest 116 on May 29.

The toll includes 60 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone - the worst-hit in the country, besides 2,560 new positive cases recorded in the state.

This amounts to over five deaths and an average 106 new cases notched every hour in the state.

Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities and over 2,000 new patients daily for the past nine days, with the previous highest figure of 3,041 infections notched on May 24.

The total number of coronavirus patients increased to 74,860, with the Health Department reporting that 39,935 of them were active cases, increasing by 1,442 over Tuesday's 38,493.

The state has, however, recorded an encouraging recovery rate of 43.18 percent and a mortality rate of 3.45 percent.

Of the total 122 fatalities on Wednesday, 49 were recorded in Mumbai alone - besides three persons from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal - taking the city death toll up to 1,417 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,276 cases to touch 43,492 now.

Besides Mumbai's 49 deaths, there were 19 fatalities in Pune, 16 in Aurangabad, 10 each in Solapur and Thane (Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Mira-Bhayander towns), four in Dhule, two each in Akola, Jalgaon and Kolhapur, and one each in Palghar, Ahmednagar, Nandurbar, Jalna and Osmanabad.

The victims comprised 71 men and 51 women, and nearly 72 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, a total of 996 fully cured patients returned home, taking the number of those discharged from 31,333 to 32,329.

The MMR (Thane Division) continued to cause grave concerns with 60 new Covid-19 deaths taking the toll to 1,742 and 56,794 positive cases.

Though trailing a distant third after Mumbai and Thane, Pune Division fatalities touched 474, besides 10,059 patients.

Since June 1, Thane district with 10,865 cases and 240 fatalities, has shot past Pune district with 8,463 patients and 367 deaths.

The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 174 deaths and 2,395 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 87 fatalities and 2,073 cases, and finally Akola Division with 53 deaths and 1,138 cases.

Latur Division has 12 deaths and 400 cases, Kolhapur Division 15 deaths and 1,125 patients, and finally, Nagpur Division with 12 deaths and 813 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased to 571,915, while those in institutional quarantine went down by 1,423 to 33,674.

In another relieving news for patients, there are as many as 71,912 beds currently available for quarantine in the state.

The state's containment zones decreased from 3,730 to 3,661 on Wednesday while 18,950 health teams have fanned out around the state to survey a population of around 71.4 lakh till date.