Mumbai, Oct 5 (IANS): Maharashtra's Covid-19 cases neared the 1.5 million mark even as Mumbai fatalities bounced back to the top slot along with Satara, health officials said here on Sunday.

The state witnessed 326 deaths on Sunday, down from the peak of 515 (September 15), and the death toll zoomed from 37,758 to 38,084 now.

With another 13,702 new infections, - nearly 11K lower than the peak single-day tally of 24,886 (September 11) - the state total shot up from 14,30,861 to 14,43,409 cases to date.

In relief, the state recovery rate also shot up for the third day - from 79.03 percent to 79.64 percent - while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 2.64 percent on Sunday.

Against this, 15,048 fully recovered patients returned home taking up the total number of discharged patients from 11,34,555 to 11,49,603 till date - much higher than the 255,281 'active cases' (ill) currently in the state.

As per the figures on Sunday, there was one death roughly every 4.41 minutes and 571 new cases added every hour to the state tally.

Of the 326 deaths, Mumbai and Satara led the state with 48 fatalities each, 41 in Pune, 33 in Thane, 26 in Nagpur, 14 in Sangli and 10 in Beed - in the higher bracket.

There were 8 fatalities each in Nashik, Raigad, Jalgaon, Kolhapur and Gondia, 7 in Ahmednagar, 6 each in Solapur, Aurangabad and Amravati, 5 in Yavatmal, 4 each in Palghar, Ratnagiri, Jalna and Latur, 3 each in Sindhudurg, Parbhani and Nanded, 2 each in Dhule, Osmanabad and Bhandara, 1 each in Hingoli and Akola besides 3 from other states or foreigners - in the lower bracket.

Remaining in the sub-50 range for the fourth day this month, Mumbai recorded 48 fatalities, and the city toll shot up from 9,060 to 9,108 while the number of corona cases shot up by 2,109 and the city total zoomed from 212,462 to 213,652 now.

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

The MMR fatalities shot up by 93 - taking up the toll from 16,204 to 16,297 and with another spike of 4,332 new infectees, the total cases shot up from 495,658 the previous day to 498,980 now.

With another 95 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 8,167 to 8,262 and the daily infections zoomed up by 3,408 - from 376,626 a day earlier to 380,167 cases now.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine for Corona increased - from 22,06,933 to 22,09,696 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down from 28,414 to 27,939 on Sunday.