Mumbai, Sep 13 (IANS): A day after easing of Covid-19 infections and deaths, Maharashtra's fatalities again soared in the 400-plus range even as the state inched close to Russia in terms of total cases, health officials said here on Sunday.

With 22,543 new cases - lower than the peak of 24,886, the state total zoomed from 10,37,765 to 10,60,308 cases now.

Adding 416 more fatalities, considerably lower than the peak of 495, the state death toll increased from 29,115 to 29,531 now.

Maharashtra's case tally (10,60,308) is now just 2,503 less than Russia's 10,62,811 cases on Sunday, ranking fourth on the Worldometer dashboard after USA, India and Brazil, but the state's death toll (29,531), is much higher than Russia's 18,578 fatalities till date.

There was one death roughly every 3.4 minutes and a whopping 939 new cases added every hour to the state tally.

The state recovery rate continued to drop - from 70.02 per cent to 69.08 per cent, while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 2.79 per cent on Sunday.

Against this, a high of 11,549 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients from 728,512 to 740,061 till date - much higher than the 290,344 'active cases' (ill) currently in the state.

Of the 416 deaths, Nagpur led the state with 73 fatalities, besides 59 in Pune, 41 in Mumbai, 28 in Thane, 25 in Sangli, 19 in Satara, 18 in Kolhapur, 15 each in Nashik and Solapur, 13 each in Jalgaon and Bhandara, 12 in Ahmednagar, 11 in Amravati - in the higher bracket.

There 9 fatalities each in Palghar and Chandrapur, 8 in Osmanabad, 6 each in Raigad and Akola, 5 each in Beed and Buldhana, 4 each in Aurangabad, Latur, Nanded and Washim, 3 each in Jalna and Hingoli, 2 in Dhule, 1 each in Nandurbar, Wardha - in the lower bracket.

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

Restricted in the sub-50 range for the past 33 days, with 41 fatalities Mumbai's death toll increased from 8,109 to 8,150 and the number of corona cases shot up by another high of 2,085 Ato jump from 167,656 to 169,741 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 84 - from 13,867 a day earlier to 13,951 and with another spike of 5,357 new infectees, the total cases shot up from 393,581 the previous day to 398,938 now.

Pune district Covid cases touched 150,403 till date with the fatalities increasing from 4,754 a day earlier to 4,813 now.

Thane district on the third spot witnessed 123,222 cases and the death toll increased from 4,134 the previous day to 4,162 now.

With another 93 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 6,271 to 6,364 and the case tally zoomed up by 6,029 - from 278,321 a day earlier to 284,350 now.

Nashik circle recorded 2,895 fatalities and 135,612 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle's 1,894 deaths and 66,505 cases, and Nagpur circle recorded 1,520 deaths and 65,982 cases.

Aurangabad circle had 1,100 fatalities and 41,560 cases, Latur circle recorded 1,079 fatalities and 39,394 cases, followed by Akola division with 628 deaths and 26,880 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased considerably from 16,52,955 to 16,83,770 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down from 38,275 to 37,294 on Sunday.