Mumbai, Aug 26 (IANS): Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded a new high of 14,888 Covid-19 cases - a day after the state crossed the 7 lakh mark, while the toll shot past the 23,000 mark, health officials said.

With the new cases - that surpassed the previous high of 14,492 cases on August 22, the state's tally rose to 718,711, and with 295 more fatalities, the death toll rose to 23,089. Both figures are highest in the country.

There was one death roughly every 5 minutes and 620 new cases added every hour, with the load of deaths gradually shifting to non-metro areas.

The state recovery rate fell from 73.14 per cent to 72.69 per cent, while the mortality rate stood at 3.21 per cent.

Meanwhile, 7,637 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 522,427 till date - considerably higher than the 172,873 active cases in the state.

Pune continued to lead the daily toll with 46 deaths, followed by 36 in Nagpur, 28 in Mumbai, 22 in Thane, and 20 each in Solapur and Sangli.

There were also 19 fatalities in Ahmednagar, 17 in Nashik, 15 in Kolhapur, 14 each in Jalgaon and Aurangabad, eight in Beed, five each in Raigad and Osmanabad, four in Ratnagiri, three each in Satara, Nanded, and Yavatmal, two each in Nandurbar, Amravati, and Bhandara, one each in Dhule, Hingoli, Parbhani, Latur, Washim, and Gondia, besides one from another state.

There was a sudden spurt of fatalities in Solapur and Sangli districts while eight districts reported zero deaths.

Remaining below the 50 mark for the 13th day, Mumbai's death toll has now risen to 7,505 and the number of cases increased by 1,854 - the highest spike this month - to 139,537.

Of the total eight circles, the MMR (Thane circle) saw fatalities rise by 55 to 12,438 and with 4,585 new infectees - the highest so far, the total cases shot up to 317,358.

Pune district's cases stand at 158,269 till date with the fatalities increasing to 3,869.

Thane district, on the third spot, has 126,042 cases and the death toll increased to 3,646.

With 69 more fatalities, the Pune circle's death toll increased to 4,897 and the case tally zoomed up by 3,928 to 187,002.

Nashik circle has recorded 2,090 fatalities and 85,461 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle with 1,019 deaths and 33,803 cases, Aurangabad circle with 858 fatalities and 29,315 cases, Latur circle with 655 fatalities and 22,449 cases, Nagpur circle with 643 deaths and 27,215 cases, followed by Akola with 422 fatalities and 15,433 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine has increased to 12,68,924, while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down to 33,644.