Mumbai, Jul 18 (IANS): Maharashtras Covid tally on Saturday crossed the 3 lakh threshold figure while Mumbai surpassed the 1 lakh-mark, with deaths dropping below the 200-mark for the second time in July, health officials said here.

The number of deaths in the state fell sharply below the 200-mark to 144 on Saturday, but was higher than the July lowest count of 125, and less than half compared to the earlier single day's record toll of 295 notched on July 4.

However, Saturday's new cases tally at 8,348 was higher than Friday's 8,308, but lower than the peak of 8,641 recorded on July 16.

With the fresh fatalities, the state's death toll went up from 11,452 a day earlier to 11,516 now, while the total cases touched 300,937, both highest in the country.

According to Saturday's figures, there was one death roughly every 10 minutes and a staggering 348 new cases added in the state every hour.

The recovery rate in the western state marginally increased from 54.81 per cent a day earlier to 55.05 per cent on Saturday, while the mortality (death) rate stood at 3.85 per cent.

The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 123,377 are active cases and that this number is lower vis-a-vis the number of patients cured and discharged, indicating a positive sign, said the health officials.

On the positive side, 5,306 recovered patients returned home on Saturday, taking the total number of discharged patients to 165,663 -- considerably higher than the 123,377 active cases in the state.

Of the total 144 fatalities, Mumbai alone recorded 65 deaths, taking up the city toll from 5,585 to 5,650, and the number of corona cases increased by 1,186 to surpass the 1-lakh mark to touch 100,350.

However, the recovery in Mumbai is also the highest in the country at 70 per cent with a case doubling rate of 54 days now, said the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Besides Mumbai's 65 deaths, there were 32 fatalities in Pune, 12 in Thane, 8 in Palghar, 5 each in Solapur and Ratnagiri, 4 each in Nashik and Aurangabad, 2 each in Amravati and Buldhana, and 1 each in Raigad, Dhule, Jalgaon, Latur and Osmanabad.

In a shock development, 72 SRPF troopers tested Covid positive on Saturday, while another 42 of their colleagues, plus 87 from CRPF and 2 from BSF are among the 203 armed personnel who have been infected and sent to quarantine, an official said.

The MMR (Thane Division) remains on edge as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the current toll at 8,071 and a staggering 3,789 new cases, pushing up the number of cases to 196,046.

Thane cases have touched 73,289 with 1,976 fatalities to emerge as the second worst-hit district in the state after Mumbai.

Pune district continues to zoom ahead by notching 51,575 cases, with the death toll increasing from 1,282 a day earlier to 1,314 on Saturday.

The Pune Division's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll reached 1,771 with the case tally touching 59,147, but it remains far behind MMR and Thane district.

The next major region of concern is Nashik Division with 870 fatalities and 19,528 cases, followed by Aurangabad Division notching 428 deaths and 11,449 cases, and Akola Division recording 184 fatalities and 4,449 cases.

Next on the list is Kolhapur Division, which has notched 95 deaths and 4,131 cases, followed by Latur Division with 114 fatalities and 2,599 cases, and Nagpur Division with 31 deaths and 3,340 cases.

Among the eight divisions, only Nagpur recorded zero fatalities on Saturday, while Chandrapur (out of total 36) remains a zero-Covid-death district till date, though all divisions and districts in the state have notched fresh cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased sharply from 724,602 to 740,884 now, while those in institutional quarantine went up from 44,284 to 45,552 on Saturday.