Mumbai, Nov 4 (IANS): After remaining in the lower ranges below 150 for a fortnight, Maharashtra's Covid-19 deaths suddenly shot up by 300 on Wednesday, though new infections dropped and the recovery rate improved, health officials said here.
The state witnessed 300 deaths, including 175 reconciled fatalities from Pune - though lower compared with the peak of 515 (Sep. 15) - and the state fatalities shot up from 44,248 to 44,548 now.
The state recorded 5,505 fresh cases - much lower that the peak single-day tally of 24,886 (Sep. 11) - and the state tally jumped from 16,92,693 to 16,98,198 cases till date.
The state recovery rate increased from 90.46 percent to 90.68 percent - while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 2.62 per cent.
Simultaneously, another lot of 8,728 fully recovered patients returned home - higher than the fresh infections for the day - taking the total from 15,31,277 to 15,40,005 till date - much higher than the 112,912 'active cases' (ill) currently in the state.
Of the 300 deaths declared (including 175 old deaths), Mumbai led with 29 fatalities, 19 in Pune, 13 in Nagpur, 11 in Thane, 7 each in Nashik, Ahmednagar and Chandrapur, 5 in Solapur, 4 in Sangli, 3 each in Raigad and Satara, 2 each in Palghar, Parbhani, Latur, Yavatmal and Gondia, 1 each in Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Jalna, Beed, Buldhana and Gadchiroli.
Remaining in the sub-50 range for the 3rd day this month, Mumbai recorded a low of 29 fatalities, and the city toll reached 10,352 while the number of corona cases shot up by 983 - and the city total climbed from 259,857 to 260,840 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 45, and the toll increased from 17,832 to 17,877 and with another spike of 1,909 new infectees, the total cases zoomed up from 587,855 the previous day to 589,764 now.
With another 27 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll zoomed up from 9,675 to 9,877 (comprising 175 old deaths), and the daily infections increased by 1,126 - from 428,383 a day earlier to 429,509 cases now.
Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine for Corona plummeted drastically - from 17,95,666 to 13,35,681 now - while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down - from 11,969 to 11,648 on Wednesday.