Mumbai, Aug 15 (IANS): Maharashtra recorded Covid-19 deaths above the 300-mark besides 12K plus new cases, even as Mumbai and Pune were separated by just 198 cases, health officials said here on Saturday.

With 322 Covid deaths -- lower than the peak of 413 (Aug 13) -- the state's toll stood at 19,749 on Saturday, while the number of new cases stood at 12,614, down from the previous high of 12,822 (Aug 8), taking the number of infectees to 584,754 till date -- both highest in the country.

There was one death roughly every 4 minutes and a staggering 526 new cases added to the state's tally every hour, as per Saturday's figures.

The state recovery rate increased from 69.08 per cent to 69.82 per cent, while the current mortality rate stood stable at 3.38 per cent on Saturday.

Against this, a total of 6,844 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 408,286 till date -- considerably higher than the 156,409 active cases currently in the state.

Of the total 322 fatalities, Pune again topped the list with 73 deaths, followed by 60 fatalities in Thane and 48 in Mumbai in the higher bracket.

Besides, there were 19 deaths in Nagpur, 18 in Palghar, 13 in Kolhapur, 10 each in Nashik and Jalna, in the middle range.

On the lower side, there were 9 deaths in Raigad, 8 each in Jalgaon and Sangli, 5 each in Dhule and Beed, 4 each in Solapur, Ratnagiri, Aurangabad, Latur and Osmanabad, 3 in Satara, 2 each in Nandurbar, Sindhudurg, Akola and Buldhana, 1 each in Ahmednagar, Amravati, Bhandara and Chandrapur, besides one from another state.

Dropping below the 50-range for the second consecutive day, with 48 fatalities Mumbai's toll increased from 7,038 to 7,086 and the number of corona cases increased by 1,254 to touch 127,716 now.

Of the total 8 divisions, MMR (Thane division, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains on the edge as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the toll shooting up by 135 - to touch 11,454 deaths and 3,512 new cases pushing up the total infectees to 284,193 now.

Pune district cases have touched 127,518 - just 198 cases less than Mumbai - with the death toll increasing from 3,057 a day earlier to reach 3,130, while Thane district had 112,638 cases with the toll increasing from 3,240 fatalities the previous day to 3,300 now.

With 80 more fatalities, Pune division's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll touched 3,966 and the case tally zoomed up with 3,332 new cases to reach 148,739.

Nashik division has recorded 1,660 fatalities and 61,833 cases, followed by Aurangabad division notching 756 deaths and 23,704 cases, and Kolhapur division recording 647 fatalities and 22,790 cases.

Next is Latur division with 470 fatalities and 14,785 cases, Nagpur division zoomed up to occupy the seventh slot with 375 deaths and 16,027 cases, followed by Akola division with 362 fatalities and 12,145 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine for Corona increased from 10,32,105 to 10,44,974 now, while those in institutional quarantine increased from 37,386 to 37,524 on Saturday.