Mumbai, Sep 10 (IANS): Maharashtra recorded the highest - 495 - Covid-19 deaths, a day after a record peak of 23,816 new cases, as the state total is set to touch a million, health officials said amid growing concerns here on Thursday.

With 23,446 new cases - below the peak of 23,816 (Sep. 9), the state total zoomed from 967,349 to 990,795 cases, and is likely to cross the million mark on Friday.

Adding 495 more fatalities - soaring past the previous peak of 423 three days ago (Sep. 7), the state death toll shot up from 27,787 to 28,282 now, including 47 old fatalities.

There was one death roughly every 3 minutes and a whopping 977 new cases added every hour to the state tally.

The state recovery rate again dropped sharply from 71.96 per cent to 70.72 per cent, while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 2.85 per cent on Thursday.

Against this, a high of 14,253 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients from 686,462 to 700,715 till date - considerably higher than the 261,432 'active cases' (ill) currently in the state.

Of the 495 deaths, Satara led the state with a whopping 72 fatalities, 50 each in Pune and Nagpur, 39 in Kolhapur, 38 in Mumbai, 34 in Thane, 22 in Sangli, 15 in Ahmednagar, 14 each in Jalgaon and Solapur, 10 each in Palghar and Raigad - in the higher bracket.

There were 9 fatalities each in Dhule and Jalna, 8 in Nashik, 7 each in Parbhani and Amravati, 6 in Nanded, 5 each in Nandurbar and Aurangabad, 4 each in Latur and Washim, 3 each in Ratnagiri and Beed, 2 in Osmanabad, 1 each in Hingoli, Akola, Gondia and Chandrapur, besides 4 from other states or foreigners - in the lower bracket - besides 47 old deaths.

The day witnessed a sharp spike in fatalities from Satara, Nagpur, Kolhapur, Sangli and Ahmednagar, even as 6 districts in the state reported zero deaths.

Remaining in the sub-50 range for the past 31 days, with 38 fatalities Mumbai's death toll crossed the 8K-mark, rising from 7,985 to 8,023 and the number of corona cases shot up by another high of 2,371 to jump from 160,744 to 163,115 now.

Of the total 8 Circles, the Mumbai circle (MMR - comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains on the brink as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the fatalities shooting up by 92, from 13,584 a day earlier to 13,676 and with another spurt of 5,836 new infections, the total cases shot up from 375,963 the previous day to 381,799 now.

Pune district Covid cases touched 218,502 till date with the fatalities increasing from 4,584 a day earlier to 4,634 now.

Thane district on the third spot witnessed 150,793 cases and the death toll increased from 4,058 the previous day to 4,092 now.

With a stupendous 136 more fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 5,923 to 6,059 and the case tally zoomed up by the highest jump of 7,644 - from 257,659 a day earlier to 265,303 now.

Nashik circle recorded 2,767 fatalities and 125,319 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle's 1,733 deaths and 60,353 cases, and Nagpur circle recorded 1,329 deaths and 57,652 cases.

Aurangabad circle had 1,046 fatalities and 39,019 cases, Latur circle recorded 1,014 fatalities and 36,527 cases, followed by Akola division with 565 deaths and 23,837 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine for Corona sharply increased from 16,11,280 to 16,30,701 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went up from 37,644 to 38,220 on Thursday.