Mumbai, Oct 11 (IANS): For the second time in six days, Maharashtra's Covid-19 cases plummeted below the 11,000-level, though deaths remained high and continue to cause concerns, health officials said here on Sunday.

The state witnessed another 309 fatalities - lower than the peak of 515 - pushing up the toll from 40,040 to 40,349 now.

The state recorded another 10,792 new infections - lesser than the peak single-day tally of 24,886 - and the state total zoomed from 15,17,434 to 15,28,226 cases till date.

In some relief, the state recovery rate also went up for the sixth day - from 82.76 per cent to 82.86 per cent - while the current mortality (death) rate remained stable at 2.64 per cent for the eighth day.

Against this, 10,461 fully recovered patients returned home taking up the total number of discharged patients shot up from 12,55,779 to 12,66,240 till date - much higher than the 221,174 'active cases' (ill) currently in the state.

As per Sunday's figures, there was one death roughly every 4.6 minutes and 450 new cases added every hour to the state tally.

Of the 309 deaths, Mumbai continues to lead with 42 fatalities, 35 each in Thane and Nagpur, 30 in Pune, 25 in Kolhapur, 20 in Satara, 19 in Ratnagiri, 15 in Sangli, 14 in Solapur, 11 each in Nashik and Ahmednagar, 10 in Nanded - in the higher bracket.

There were 9 fatalities in Raigad, 5 in Jalgaon, 4 each in Palghar and Akola, 3 each in Beed and Gondia, 2 each in Amravati, Bhandara and Gadchiroli, 1 each in Aurangabad, Jalna, Latur, Osmanabad, Yavatmal and Chandrapur, besides 2 from other states or foreign nationals - in the lower bracket.

Remaining in the sub-50 range for the ninth day this month, Mumbai recorded 42 fatalities, and the city toll shot up from 9,391 to 9,433 while the number of corona cases went up by 2,170 and the city total increased from 227,276 to 229,446 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 due to the contagion.

The MMR fatalities shot up by 90 - taking up the toll from 16,837 to 16,927 and with another spike of 4,121 new infectees, the total cases zoomed up from 525,273 the previous day to 529,394 now.

With another 64 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll zoomed from 8,722 to 8,786 and the daily infections increased by 2,346 - from 395,854 a day earlier to 398,200 cases now.

With 27 new fatalities, Nashik circle surpassed the 4K mark to touch 4,009 deaths and 206,039 cases, followed by Kolhapur circlea¿s 3,251 fatalities and 102,603 cases, and Nagpur circle recorded 2,909 deaths and 123,502 cases.

Latur circle recorded 1,7790 deaths and 62,913 cases, Aurangabad circle had 1,457 fatalities and 56,871 cases, followed by Akola circle's 1,075 deaths and 46,910 cases now.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine again increased significantly - from 22,68,057 to 23,10,83 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down from 24,994 to 24726 on Sunday.