Mumbai, Nov 15 (IANS): In glad tidings on Diwali, Maharashtra's Covid-19 deaths and fresh cases fell drastically, while the number of active cases are dipped and the recovery rate improved marginally, health officials said here on Sunday.

Dropping below the 100 mark, the state witnessed only 60 more deaths - just over 10 per cent of the peak tally of 515 seen on September 15, taking the death toll to 45,974 now.

Plummeting below the 3,000-level, there were 2,544 fresh cases - a bit over 10 per cent of the peak single-day tally of 24,886 seen on September 11, taking the tally to 17,47,242.

The state recovery rate improved marginally to 92.45 per cent - although the mortality rate remained stable at 2.63 per cent.

Another lot of 3,065 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total to 16,15,379 till date, against the 84,918 active cases.

Of the 60 fresh deaths, 15, or one fourth, were reported from Mumbai, while nine died in Thane, seven each in Nashik and Pune, four each in Parbhani and Chandrapur, three in Beed, two each in Ahmednagar, Sangli, and Nagpur, and one each in Raigad, Solapur, Satara, Sindhudurg, and Gondia.

Remaining in the sub 50 toll range for the 14th day this month, Mumbai saw its deaths rise to 10,573, while, with the new infections remaining below the 1,000 mark for the fourth day in a row, at 577, the total rose to 269,710.

Mumbai circle (MMR) recorded 25 new deaths pushing up the toll to 18,329 and with another spike of 1,050 new infectees, the total cases zoomed up to 606,282.

Pune circle came to the single-digit level with nine fatalities, taking the death toll to 10,276 and the daily infections increased by 516 to 438,804 cases.

The state health authorities did not reveal the number of people in home and institutional quarantine on Sunday.