Mumbai, Sep 27 (IANS): After five days, Maharashtra's Covid-19 deaths dropped below the 400-mark, though fresh cases continued to remain on the high, health officials said here on Sunday.

The state recorded 18,056 new cases - lower than the peak day's tally of 24,886 - pushing up the total from 13,21,176 to 13,39,232 cases till date.

Adding 380 more fatalities - down from the peak of 515 - the death toll shot up from 35,191 to 35,571 now.

The recovery rate dropped marginally - from 76.94 per cent to 76.91 per cent - while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 2.66 per cent on Sunday.

Against this, 13,565 fully recovered patients returned home taking up the total of discharged patients above the million-mark, from 10,16,450 to 10,30,015 till date - much higher than the 273,228 'active cases' (ill) currently in the state.

As per the figures on Sunday, there was one death roughly every 3.7 minutes and 752 new cases added every hour to the state tally.

Of the 380 deaths, Pune continued to lead with 46 fatalities, 44 in Mumbai, 34 in Chandrapur, 32 in Thane, 31 in Sangli, 30 in Satara, 24 in Kolhapur, 19 in Nagpur, 12 each in Ahmednagar, Ratnagiri and Nanded, 10 each in Jalgaon and Yavatmal - in the higher bracket.

There were 8 fatalities each in Nashik and Solapur, 7 in Aurangabad, 6 each in Osmanabad and Amravati, 5 in Beed, 4 in Nandurbar, 3 each in Raigad and Gondia, 2 each in Palghar, Dhule, Parbhani and Bhandara, 1 each in Sindhudurg, Latur and Wardha, besides 3 from other states/foreigners - in the lower bracket.

Continuing in the sub-50 range for the third day this month, Mumbai recorded 44 fatalities which took up the toll from 8,750 to 8,794 while the number of corona cases shot up by 2,261and jumped from 196,585 to 198,846 now.

Of the total 8 Circles, the situation in Mumbai circle (MMR - comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains on the brink as deaths spiral and cases pile up.

The MMR fatalities shot up by 81 - from 15,385 to 15,466 and with another spike of 4,876 new infectees, the total cases shot up from 462,738 the previous day to 467,614 now.

With another high of 84 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 7,606 to 7,690 and the daily case tally zoomed up by another 4,484 - from 351,308 a day earlier to 355,792 cases now.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased - from 19,45,758 to 19,64,644 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down from 30,571 to 30,467 on Sunday.