Mumbai, Sep 16 (IANS): Maharashtra on Wednesday saw a fresh spurt in new Covid cases, pushing up the number of infectees above 11 lakh - though deaths subsided, health officials said here.

The state recorded 23,365 cases - lower than the highest one-day tally of 24,886 (September 11) - and the state's total zoomed past the 11-lakh mark from 10,97,856 to 11,21,221 cases now.

Adding a staggering 474 more fatalities, although lower than the peak of 515 (September 15) - the state's death toll increased from 30,409 to 30,883 now.

There was one death roughly every 3.03 minutes and a whopping 974 new cases added every hour to the tally.

The recovery rate improved for the second consecutive day - from 70.62 per cent to 70.71 per cent - while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 2.75 per cent on Wednesday.

Against this, 17,559 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients from 775,273 to 792,832 till date - much higher than the 297,125 active cases currently in the state.

Of the 474 deaths, there were 50 in Mumbai, 48 in Pune, 39 in Nagpur, 38 in Satara, 36 in Ahmednagar, 31 in Sangli, 29 in Thane, 27 in Raigad, 23 in Nashik, 19 in Kolhapur, 14 each in Solapur and Latur, 11 in Amravati, 10 in Ratnagiri - in the higher bracket.

There were 9 fatalities each in Palghar and Beed, 8 each in Jalgaon and Osmanabad, 7 in Aurangabad, 6 each in Parbhani, Nanded and Washim, 5 each in Sindhudurg and Gondia, 3 each in Jalna and Buldhana, 2 each in Nandurbar and Akola, 1 each in Dhule, Yavatmal, Wardha, Bhandara and Gadchiroli, besides 1 from outside the state or a foreigner - in the lower bracket.

The day witnessed a sharp spike in fatalities from Nagpur, Satara, Ahmednagar, Sanglil, Raigad and Nashik, even as only 2 districts in the state recorded no-deaths.

Restricted in the sub-50 range for the past 36 days, Mumbai recorded 50 deaths - the highest in the state - and the toll increased from 8,230 to 8,280, while the number of corona cases shot up by 2,378 to jump from 173,596 to 175,974 now.

Of the total 8 Circles, the situation in Mumbai circle (MMR - comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains alarming as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the fatalities shooting up by 115 - from 14,263 a day earlier to 14,378 and with another spike of 5,603 new infectees, the total cases shot up from 408,774 the previous day to 414,377 now.

Pune district Covid cases touched 244,530 till date with the fatalities increasing from 4,888 a day earlier to 4,936 now.

Thane district on the third spot (after Pune and Mumbai) witnessed 162,754 cases and the death toll increased from 4,361 the previous day to 4,390 now.

With another 100 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 6,481 to 6,581 and the case tally zoomed up by 6,527 - from 293,803 a day earlier to 300,330 now.

Nashik circle recorded 3,053 fatalities and 144,820 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle's 2,118 deaths and 71,496 cases, and Nagpur circle recorded 1,672 deaths and 73,118 cases.

Latur circle recorded 1,165 deaths and 42,778 cases, Aurangabad circle had 1,136 fatalities and 43,496 cases, followed by Akola circle with 672 deaths and 29,657 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased considerably, jumping from 17,34,164 to 17,53,347 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down from 37,225 to 36,462 on Wednesday.