Mumbai, Oct. Oct 24 (IANS): Hopes were raised in Maharashtra of Covid-19 curve 'flattening' as deaths and new cases continued to decline for the past one week, bolstered by an improved recovery rate, health officials said here on Saturday.

The state witnessed just 137 deaths - compared with the peak of 515 (Sep. 15), but higher than 125 recorded on Oct. 19 - and the state fatalities shot up from 43,015 to 43,152 now.

The state recorded 6,417 new cases - less than one-third compared with the peak single-day tally of 24,886 (Sep. 11), and the state tally jumped from 16,32,544 to 16,38,961 cases till date.

On another positive development, the state recovery rate continued to remain high and increased from 88.52 per cent to 88.78 percent - while the current mortality (death) rate stood 2.63 per cent.

Simultaneously, 10,004 fully recovered patients returned home - taking up the total number of discharged patients from 14,45,103 to 14,55,107 till date - much higher than the 140,194 'active cases' (ill) currently in the state.

As per Saturday's figures, there was one death roughly every 10 minutes and 267 new cases added every hour to the state tally.

Of the 137 deaths declared, Mumbai had the lion's share of 50 fatalities, 14 in Pune and 10 in Thane - in the higher bracket.

There were 8 fatalities each in Solapur and Nagpur, 5 in Jalgaon, 4 each in Sangli and Yavatmal, 3 each in Ahmednagar, Latur, Beed, Nanded, Wardha and Chandrapur, 2 each in Raigad, Satara, Kolhapur, Sindhudurg, Jalna and Osmanabad, 1 each in Palghar, Ratnagiri and Washim, besides 1 outsider - in the lower bracket.

Remaining in the sub-50 range for the 23rd day this month, Mumbai recorded 50 fatalities, and the city toll shot up from 10,009 to 10,059, while the number of corona cases shot up by 1,257 - and the city total climbed fromA248,802 to 250,059 now.

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

The MMR fatalities shot up by 63 and the toll increased from 17,594 to 17,657 and with another spike of 2,457 new infectees, the total cases zoomed up from 566,699 the previous day to 569,156 now.

With another 24 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll zoomed up from 9,359 to 9,383 and the daily infections increased by 1,196 - from 416,801 a day earlier to 417,997 cases now.

Nashik circle recorded 4,176 deaths and 219,327 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle's 3,603 fatalities and 107,119 cases, and Nagpur circle had 3,434 deaths and 143,406 cases.

Latur circle recorded 1,998 deaths and 67,377 cases, Aurangabad circle had 1,539 fatalities and 61,248 cases, followed by Akola circle's 1,219 deaths and 51,257 cases now.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine for Corona increased sharply - from 24,38,245 to 25,03,510 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went up - from 13,545 to 14,170 on Saturday.