Mumbai, Sep 3 (IANS): Maharashtra on Thursday saw a new high of Covid-19 cases, which jumped to over 18,000, while deaths again soared high and Mumbai's total cases crossed the 1.50 lakh mark, health officials said.

With 18,105 new cases, the state surpassed the previous high of 17,433, seen only on Wednesday, to take its total tally to 843,844, while 391 fresh fatalities took its toll to 25,586.

The state saw one death roughly every 4 minutes and a staggering 754 new cases added every hour, even as its recovery rate increased from 72.48 per cent to 72.58 per cent. The mortality rate stands at 3.03 per cent.

Meanwhile, 13,988 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 612,484 till date, against the 205,428 active cases.

Of the new fatalities, Pune led with 78, while there were 37 deaths in Mumbai, 31 in Nagpur, 30 each in Thane and Kolhapur, 25 in Satara, 24 in Sangli, 16 in Jalgaon, and 15 each in Nashik and Solapur.

There were also 10 deaths in Palghar, nine in Osmanabad, eight in Latur, seven in Ahmednagar, six in Buldhana, five each in Raigad, Parbhani, and Nanded, four each in Nandurbar, Jalna, Beed, and Akola, three each in Dhule, Ratnagiri, Aurangabad, and Hingoli, two in Yavatmal, one each in Amravati, Washim, besides three from other states.

Remaining below the 50 mark for the past 24 days, the fatalities in Mumbai took its toll to 7,764 and the number of cases increased by 1,526 to 150,095.

The Mumbai circle (MMR) saw its fatalities rise to 13,089 with 82 more deaths, while with 4,330 new infectees, the total cases rose to 346,368.

Pune district's cases reached 186,122, and the toll 4,238.

Thane district is on the third spot with 137,244 cases and 4,238 deaths.

With 188 more fatalities, the Pune circle's death toll increased from 5,314 to 5,432 and 5,121 new cases took its tally to 223,215 now.

Nashik circle recorded 2,433 fatalities and 105,891 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle with 1,372 deaths and 45,861 cases, Aurangabad circle with 951 fatalities and 33,073 cases, Nagpur circle with 904 deaths and 40,887 cases, Latur circle with 835 fatalities and 28,731 cases, followed by Akola with 494 deaths and 19,018 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people in home quarantine is 14,27,316 while 36,475 are in institutional quarantine.