Mumbai, Aug 11 (IANS): Covid-19 deaths continued to decline in Maharashtra for the second straight day, but the number of new cases is still soaring, health officials said here on Tuesday.

The state notched 256 Covid deaths - down from the highest one-day fatalities at 390 on August 9, and recorded 11,088 new cases, dropping below the one-day peak of 12,822 (August 8).

The state's death toll shot up from 18,050 a day earlier to 18,306, while the total number of cases went up from 524,513 to 535,601 now - both highest in the country.

According to Tuesday's figures, there was one death roughly every 6 minutes and a staggering 462 new cases every hour added to the state tally.

The state recovery rate moved up from 68.33 per cent to 68.79 per cent on Tuesday, while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 3.42 per cent.

A total of 10,014 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 368,435 till date - considerably higher than the 148,553 'active cases' currently in the state.

Of the total 256 fatalities, Pune topped again with 53 deaths, followed by Mumbai's 48 deaths, and Thane's 43.

Dipping below the 50-mark for the second day, with 48 fatalities, Mumbai's toll increased from 6,845 to 6,893 and the number of cases increased by 917 - to touch 125,224 now.

Besides, there were 27 deaths in Kolhapur, 15 deaths in Nashik, 12 in Nagpur, 11 in Palghar, 7 each in Jalgaon and Solapur, 5 each in Ahmednagar and Sangli, 4 in Raigad, 3 in Beed, 2 each in Dhule, Satara, Ratnagiri, Jalna, plus a single fatality each in Aurangabad, Parbhani, Latur, Osmanabad, Nanded, Buldhana and Wardha, besides 1 from another state.

State Health Minister Rajesh Tope announced that the cost of Covid tests would be further slashed to between Rs 1,900 and Rs 2,200, from the existing Rs 2,200 to Rs 2,800, for the second time since June 13, making it the lowest in the country.

The MMR (Thane Division, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains on the brink as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the toll shooting up by 106 to touch 10,962 deaths and a fresh 2,713 new cases pushed the total to 272,104 now.

Pune district's total cases have touched 116,646, with the death toll rose from 2,771 a day earlier to 2,824, while Thane district had 106,938 cases with 3,092 fatalities, on Tuesday.

With 62 more fatalities, the Pune Division's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll touched 3,596 and the case tally zoomed up with 2,459 new cases to reach 135,061.

Nashik Division has recorded 1,496 fatalities and 52,447 cases, followed by Aurangabad Division notching 708 deaths and 21,573 cases, and Kolhapur Division recorded 499 fatalities and 18,370 cases.

Next is Latur Division with 373 fatalities and 12,375 cases, Akola Division with 333 fatalities and 10,683 cases, and Nagpur Division with 283 deaths and 12,437 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased from 10,01,268 to 10,04,233 now, while those in institutional quarantine increased from 35,521 to 35,648 on Tuesday.