Mumbai, Aug 26 (IANS) Maharashtra's Covid-19 tally crossed the 7 lakh-mark with another spike in the number of casualties above the 300-mark, health officials said here on Tuesday.

With 10,425 new cases, below the August 22 record of 14,492, the state's total cases shot up from 693,398 to 703,823, and with 329 more fatalities, the death toll shot up from 22,465 to 22,794 -- both highest in the country.

There was one death roughly every 4 minutes and 434 new cases added every hour to the state tally, with a load of deaths gradually shifting to non-metro areas.

The state recovery rate shot up from 72.47 per cent to 73.14 per cent, while the current mortality rate stood at 3.24 per cent on Tuesday.

Against this, a high of 12,300 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients from 502,490 to 514,790 till date, considerably higher than the 165,921 active cases currently in the state.

Pune regained its lead position on Tuesday with a death toll of 58, followed by 37 in Kolhapur, 35 each in Mumbai and Raigad and 31 in Thane.

Besides, there were 24 fatalities in Nagpur, 21 in Aurangabad, 15 in Sangli and 12 in Jalgaon. On the lower side, there were 8 deaths each in Nashik, Ahmednagar, Satara and Latur, 7 in Osmanabad, 4 in Solapur, 3 each in Palghar, Beed and Bhandara, 2 in Chandrapur, 1 each in Dhule, Jalna, Parbhani, Nanded, Akola, Buldhana and Wardha.

The day's highlights were a sudden spurt of fatalities in Kolhapur, Raigad and Aurangabad while 9 districts reported zero deaths.

Remaining below the 50-range for the 12th day with 35 fatalities, Mumbai's death toll increased from 7,442 to 7,477 and the number of corona cases increased by only 587 -- the lowest in over 3 months -- to touch 137,683 now.

Of the total 8 circles, the MMR (Thane circle, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains on the brink as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the fatalities shooting up by 104 deaths from 12,279 a day earlier to 12,383, and with 1,707 new infectees, the total cases shot up from 311,066 a day earlier to 312,773 now.

Pune district's cases touched 155,039 with the fatalities increasing from 3,765 a day earlier to 3,823.

Thane district is on the third spot (after Pune and Mumbai), witnessing 124,261 cases while the death toll increased from 3,593 the previous day to 3,624 now.

With 70 more fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 4,758 to 4,828 and the case tally zoomed up by 3,362 to reach 183,074 now.

Nashik circle recorded 2,037 fatalities and 82,959 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle with 980 deaths and 32,890 cases, and Aurangabad circle with 842 fatalities and 28,821 cases.

Next is Latur circle with 638 fatalities and 21,889 cases, Nagpur circle with 604 deaths and 25,746 cases, and Akola division with 416 fatalities and 15,011 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from 12,44,024 to 12,53,273 now, while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down from 33,922 to 33,668 on Tuesday.