Mumbai, Aug 31 (IANS): In a relief, Covid-19 deaths and new cases plummeted in Maharashtra after remaining in the higher ranges for the past week, officials said on Monday.

At 11,852 new cases, the state recorded its lowest tally in a week, and over 5,000 lower from the peak of 16,867 on August 29. The new cases took the total to 792,541, and with 184 more fatalities, the death toll went up to 24,583 - both highest in the country.

There was one death roughly every 8 minutes and a 494 new cases added every hour, with the load of deaths and cases gradually shifting to non-metro areas.

The state recovery rate increased from 72.04 per cent to 72.37 per cent, while the mortality rate stood at 3.01 per cent.

A total of 11,158 fully-recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 573,559 till date - against the 194,056 active cases.

Of Monday's fatalities, Mumbai and Thane recorded 32 deaths each, Kolhapur 19, Nagpur 15, and Jalgaon 11.

There were nine fatalities in Pune, eight in Nanded, seven in Satara, six each in Sangli and Osmanabad, four each in Solapur, Aurangabad, and Latur, three each in Palghar, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Beed, and Yavatmal, two each in Jalna and Chandrapur, and one each in Raigad, Ratnagiri, Buldhana, Washim, and Gondiya.

There was a drastic fall in fatalities in the worst-hit Pune, even as 9 districts in the state reported zero deaths.

Remaining below the 50 mark for the past 20 days, Mumbai saw its death toll increase to 7,658 and the number of corona cases increased by 1,179 to 145,805.

Of the total 8 circles, the Mumbai circle (MMR) saw fatalities rising by 68 to 12,839 and with 3,171 new infectees, the total cases went up to 334,218.

Pune district's Covid cases reached 175,105, with the fatalities increasing to 4,069.

Thane district was on the third spot, with 132,640 cases and a death toll of 3,809.

With 20 more fatalities - the lowest in over two months, the Pune circle's toll increased to 5,172 and the case tally went up by 2,619 to 208,634.

Nashik circle recorded 2,306 fatalities and 98,252 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle with 1,235 deaths and 41,202 cases, Aurangabad circle with 912 fatalities and 31,596 cases, Nagpur circle with 805 deaths and 34,646 cases, Latur circle with 780 fatalities and 25,898 cases, followed by Akola with 462 deaths and 17,354 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased to 13,55,330, while the number of those in institutional quarantine went up to 35,722.