Mumbai, Jul 6 (IANS): For the second consecutive day, the Covid-19 cases in the state dropped to below 5K figures, but outstripped Turkey, even as the state toll crossed the 9K mark, while Thane fatalities overtook Mumbai for the second time this month, health officials said here on Monday.

The state recorded 5,368 new cases, down from Sunday's 6,555 cases -- and dipping by 1,706 from the highest count of 7,074 cases notched on July 4.

The number of fatalities in the state on Monday shot up from the July-lowest of 125 to 204 -- but remained lower than the previous day's highest toll of 295 notched on July 4.

With Monday's 204 fatalities, the state's death toll climbed from Sunday's 8,822 to touch 9,026 on Monday and the total cases zoomed to 211,987 till date, both being the highest in the country.

At the current number of cases, Maharashtra on Monday overtook Turkey, which ranks 14 on the Worldometer (205,758 cases), after shooting past Germany (197,651 cases) on Sunday. Last month, the state had zoomed past Canada and France in terms of total patients, besides recording more daily infections than the United Kingdom.

With Monday's data, there was one death recorded roughly every 7 minutes and a staggering 224 new cases notched every hour in the state.

The recovery rate in the state changed marginally from Sunday's 54.08 per cent to 54.37 per cent on Monday, while the mortality (death) rate stood at 4.26 per cent.

July has kick-started with three-digit highs of deaths and 5K plus figures of new patients notched since the past six days, causing massive concerns among the health officials.

The health department said that of the total number of cases declared till date, 87,681 are active cases as on Monday, and this number is lower (favourable) vis-a-vis the number of patients cured, indicating a positive sign.

On a positive side, 3,522 fully cured patients returned home on Monday, taking the number of those discharged to 115,262 now, "considerably higher than the 87,681 active cases currently in the state".

Of the total 204 fatalities declared on Monday, Thane alone notched 57 deaths.

Mumbai ranked next with 39 fatalities, pulling up the city death toll to 4,938 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients shot up by 1,200 cases to touch 85,724.

Besides Thane's 57 and Mumbai's 39 deaths, there were 17 deaths each in Pune and Nashik, 16 in Jalgaon, 14 in Palghar, 7 each in Solapur and Aurangabad, 5 each in Dhule and Jalna, 4 each in Satara and Raigad, 3 in Akola, 2 in Latur, 1 each in Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Ahmednagar, Nagpur, Amravati, Nanded, and Osmanabad.

Given the grim situation in Thane, leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis has launched a tour of some of the worst-hit towns in the western part of the district and called for more tests, ventilators, ICU beds, and other facilities to curb the Covid cases and fatalities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Maharashtra Police recorded 70 deaths of its personnel across the state besides a total of 5,454 cases, of which 4,250 have been cured.

The MMR (Thane Division) continues to be tense as deaths and cases pile up, with a total of 6,515 Covid-19 fatalities and a staggering 3,369 new patients, pushing up the number of positive cases to 149,138 today.

Thane cases have shot up to 49,485 with 1,327 fatalities - to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Thane had recorded its highest ever 179 deaths (July 4), and with 57 fatalities, it has raced past the Mumbai toll for the second time in two days.

Pune district comes third with 28,966 patients and 889 deaths till now.

The Pune Division (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts), which has recorded 33,581 patients and 1,244 fatalities, remains behind MMR and Thane district.

The next major region of concern is Nashik Division with 628 fatalities and 12,019 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 335 deaths and 8,003 cases, and finally Akola Division with 147 fatalities and 3,190 cases.

Kolhapur Division has notched 57 deaths and 2,384 patients, Latur Division has 55 fatalities and 1,289 cases, and finally Nagpur Division has recorded 20 deaths and 2,244 cases.

For the first time this month, all the eight divisions in the state have recorded both fatalities and new Covid cases, while Chandrapur and Bhandara are the only two districts with zero Covid deaths so far.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased from Sunday's 604,463 to 615,265 now, while those in institutional quarantine went up from 46,062 to 46,355 on Monday.