Mumbai, Oct 7 (IANS): Maharashtra's Covid-19 deaths crossed 39,000 on Wednesday even as new cases continued to spike especially in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), health officials said here.

The state witnessed another 355 fatalities - lower than the peak of 515, and the state toll zoomed from 38,717 to touch 39,072 now.

The state recorded another 14,578 new infections - lesser than the peak single-day tally of 24,886 - the state's total shot up from 14,65,911 to 14,80,489 cases till date.

In some relief, the recovery rate also went up for the third day - from 80.48 per cent to 80.81 per cent - while the current mortality (death) rate remained stable at 2.64 per cent for the fourth day.

Against this, 16,715 fully recovered patients returned home taking up the total number of discharged patients from 11,79,726 to 11,96,441 till date - much higher than the 244,527 'active cases' (ill) currently in the state.

As per Wednesday's figures, there was one death roughly every 4.05 minutes and 607 new cases added every hour to the state tally.

Of the 355 deaths, Mumbai continued to lead with 46 fatalities, 40 in Pune, 35 in Satara, 22 in Palghar, 21 in Thane, 20 in Nagpur, 16 in Kolhapur, 14 each in Nashik, Solapur and Parbhani, 13 in Nanded, 11 in Sangli and 10 in Beed - in the higher bracket.

There were 8 fatalities in Amravati, 7 each in Ahmednagar, Osmanabad and Akola, 6 each in Palghar and Latur, 5 each in Ratnagiri and Wardha, 3 each in Jalgaon, Aurangabad, Jalna, Yavatmal and Buldhana, 2 each in Sindhudurg, Hingoli and Bhandara, 1 each in Dhule, Nandurbar, Washim, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli, besides 2 from other states/foreigners - in the lower bracket.

Remaining in the sub-50 range for the sixth day this month, Mumbai recorded 46 fatalities, and the city toll shot up from 9,202 to 9,248 while the number of corona cases shot up by 2,848, and the city total zoomed from 217,113 to 219,961 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 95 - taking up the toll from 16,464 to 16,559 and with another spike of 5,410 new infectees, the total cases zoomed up from 506,123 the previous day to 511,524 now.

With another 89 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 8,387 to 8,476 and the daily infections increased by 3,062 - from 384,960 a day earlier to 388,022 cases now.

Nashik circle recorded 3,874 fatalities and 198,836 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle's 3,114 deaths and 99,656 cases, and Nagpur circle recorded 2,735 deaths and 118,668 cases.

Latur circle recorded 1,701 deaths and 60,934 cases, Aurangabad circle had 1,425 fatalities and 55,511 cases, followed by Akola circle's 1,038 deaths and 45,642 cases now.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased - from 22,38,351 to 22,48,741 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down from 25,828 to 25,655 on Wednesday.