Mumbai, Jun 9 (IANS): Maharashtra recorded 120 Covid-19 fatalities as the state crossed the 90K cases mark, overtaking China, 90 days after the first case was detected here on March 9, officials said here on Tuesday.

The state on Tuesday recorded 120 deaths, marking an increase of 11 over Monday's 109, besides 2,259 new Covid-19 cases.

The previous three-digit highs recorded in the state include -- 103 deaths (June 2), 122 (June 3), 123 (June 4), 139 (June 5), 120 (June 6), 109 (June 8) and 120 (Tuesday).

This comes to roughly one death every 12 minutes, and an average 94 new cases notched every hour, in the state.

Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities and new patients over 2K daily for the past 14 days, with the previous single-day highest figure of 3,041 infections notched on May 24. In fact, the state has been notching new cases at a rate higher than the United Kingdom.

With 120 fatalities, the state's death toll has touched 3,289 while the total number of Coronavirus patients increased from Monday's 88,528 to zoom past the 90K mark and touch 90,787 on Tuesday.

The health department said that of the total number of cases declared till date, 44,849 were active cases as on Tuesday, increasing by 475 over Monday's 44,374.

The state has recorded a handsome recovery rate of 46.96 per cent and a mortality (death) rate of 3.60 per cent.

Of the total 120 fatalities on Tuesday, 58 were recorded in Mumbai alone -- taking the city's death toll up from Monday's 1,702 to 1,760 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here went up by 1,015 cases to touch 51,100 now.

Besides Mumbai's 58 deaths, there were 20 fatalities in Thane (Mira-Bhayander, Thane, Navi Mumbai), 16 in Pune, 10 in Aurangabad, 3 each in Nashik and Raigad, 2 each in Palghar, Solapur, Akola and Nagpur, and one each in Ratnagiri and Amravati.

The victims comprised 80 men and 40 women and nearly 76 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, a total of 1,663 fully cured patients returned home on Tuesday, taking the number of those discharged to 42,638.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday inaugurated a Covid-19 testing lab built at a cost of Rs 1.07 crore at the Ratnagiri Civil Hospital, taking the number of such testing facilities to 85 in the state.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Mayor Kishor Pednekar has ordered a probe into a bizarre case of an 80-year Covid-19 man, who went ‘missing' from the BMC's Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Shatabdi Hospital, Kandivali, and a couple of days later his body was found in Borivali.

Pune Police Commissioner K. Venkatesham launched an educational short-film ‘Covid ki bimaari se ladhiye, Bimaar se nahi' along with ABIL Managing Director Amit Bhonsale.

The MMR (Thane Division) continued to cause grave concerns with 83 new Covid-19 deaths, pulling up the toll to 2,216, and taking the number of positive cases to 68,299 on Tuesday, the highest in the country.

Though trailing a distant third after MMR, Pune Division's fatalities touched 568, besides 12,199 patients.

Since June 1, Thane district, with 14,063 cases and 355 fatalities, has zoomed past Pune district.

The next major region of concern is Nashik Division with 248 deaths and 3,349 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 118 fatalities and 2,586 cases, and Akola Division with 64 deaths and 1,424 cases.

There's Latur Division with 16 deaths and 498 cases, Kolhapur Division with 26 deaths and 1,358 patients, and finally Nagpur Division with 14 deaths (including one from Madhya Pradesh) and 996 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from Monday's 564,736 to 568,073 on Tuesday, while those in institutional quarantine went down by 290 to 26,470 now.

In a relieving news for the patients, there are as many as 75,930 beds currently available for Covid-19 quarantine in the state.

The state's containment zones increased from 3,510 to 3,750 on Tuesday while 18,994 health teams have fanned out around the state to survey a population of around 69.16 lakh till date.