Mumbai, Nov 6 (IANS): Maharashtra's Covid-19 deaths remained high for the fourth day despite a fall in new infections and an improved recovery rate, health officials said here on Friday.

The state witnessed 161 deaths, compared to the peak toll of 515 reported on September 15, taking the total death toll to 44,965.

The state also reported 5,027 fresh cases, much lower than the peak single-day tally of 24,886 recorded on September 11, taking the total tally to 17,10,314 cases till date.

On the positive side, the state's recovery rate increased from 91.07 per cent to 91.35 per cent, while the current mortality rate stood at 2.63 per cent.

Simultaneously, another lot of 11,060 fully recovered patients returned home, nearly double the fresh infections for the day, taking the total number of recoveries to 15,62,342, much higher than the 102,099 active cases currently present in the state.

Of the 161 deaths declared on Friday, Satara led with 31 fatalities, followed by 22 in Mumbai, 17 in Pune, 14 each in Thane and Solapur, 8 in Sangli, 7 in Nanded, 6 each in Ahmednagar and Nagpur, 5 in Gondia, 4 each in Kolhapur and Chandrapur, 3 each in Palghar, Nashik, Beed and Buldhana, 2 each in Osmanabad and Akola, and 1 each in Jalgaon, Nandurbar, Aurangabad, Jalna, Latur, Yavatmal and Bhandara.

Remaining in the sub-50 range for the fifth day this month, Mumbai recorded a low of 22 fatalities, taking the city's toll to 10,399.

For the seventh consecutive, Mumbai recorded sub-1,000 new daily infections,as the number of fresh corona patients went up by 792 to 262,473.

Of the total 8 circles, Mumbai circle's (MMR, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) fatalities shot up by 39, taking the overall toll to 17,962, while another spike of 1,654 new infectees took its tally to 593,111.

With another 62 fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll zoomed to 9,998, while the daily infections increased by 1,055 to take its tally to 431,615 cases.

Nashik circle has so far recorded 4,337 deaths and 229,496 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle's 3,833 fatalities and 110,082 cases, and Nagpur circle's 3,670 deaths and 155,502 cases.

Latur circle has recorded 2,130 fatalities and 70,400 cases, Aurangabad circle 1,596 fatalities and 64.059 cases, followed by Akola circle's 1,288 deaths and 53,831 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine decreased from 12,52,758 to 10,59,499, while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down from 12,003 to 8,897 on Thursday.