Mumbai, Jul 15 (IANS): Covid-19 continued to soar in the high ranges in Maharashtra which reported 233 new deaths on Wednesday and saw fresh cases again shoot above the 7,000-mark, even as the number of those cured in the state so far crossed 1.50 lakh, health officials said here.

The number of fatalities in the state again went above the 200-mark to 233 on Wednesday.

Wednesday's new cases tally of 7,975 was down from a peak of 8,139 (July 11) but increased sharply by 1,234 compared with Tuesday's 6,741 cases.

With the fresh fatalities, the state's death toll went up to 10,928 while the total cases touched 275,640, both highest in the country.

According to Wednesday's figures, one death was recorded roughly every 6 minutes and a staggering 332 new cases added every hour in the state.

The recovery rate in the state decreased from 55.67 per cent a day earlier to 55.37 per cent on Wednesday, while the mortality rate stood at 3.96 per cent.

The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 111,801 are active cases.

On the positive side, 3,606 recovered persons returned home on Wednesday, taking the total number of discharged patients to 152,613.

Of Wednesday's fatalities, Mumbai alone accounted for 62 deaths, taking up the city toll from 5,405 to 5,467, and the number of corona cases increased by 1,374 to touch 96,474 on Wednesday.

Besides, Thane recorded 49 new fatalities, there were 48 deaths in Pune, 14 in Jalgaon, 13 in Nashik, 10 in Solapur, six in Palghar, five each in Raigad, Kolhapur and Aurangabad, four in Latur, three each in Dhule and Jalna, two in Sangli, and one each in Satara, Ratnagiri, Nanded and Amravati.

The MMR (Thane division) remains on edge as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the current toll at 7,665 and a staggering 4,140 new patients, pushing up the number of cases to 183,900 on Wednesday.

Thane's cases have touched 67,360 with 1,818 fatalities to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district has recorded 44,202 cases, and 1,200 deaths, while the the death toll in Pune division (Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) reached 1,637 with the tally crossing the 50K mark to touch 50,893 - but it still remains far behind MMR and Thane district.

Nashik division has 812 fatalities and 17,534 cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 409 deaths and 10,520 cases, and Akola division with 169 fatalities and 4,088 cases.

Kolhapur division has recorded 84 deaths and 3,288 cases, Latur division 91 fatalities and 2,166 cases, and Nagpur division recorded 30 deaths and 3,036 cases.

Of the eight divisions in the state, only Nagpur did not notch any fatalities on Wednesday, while only Chandrapur (out of total 36) remains a zero Covid death district, though all have notched fresh cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased to 708,373, while those in institutional quarantine went up to 43,315 on Wednesday.