Mumbai, Dec 3 (IANS): Maharashtra's Covid-19 deaths again crossed the 100-mark while new cases also increased, though the number of active cases dropped slightly, health authorities said on Wednesday.

The state reported 111 deaths on Wednesday -- crossing the 100-mark for the first time since November 20 when it had reported 155 deaths -- taking the state's overall death toll to 47,357. The new cases again shot past the 5,000-mark to 5,600, taking the state's Covid tally to 18,32,176 cases till date.

While 15 of the 36 districts in the state reported fatalities (all reported new infections), the bulk of the deaths were reported from the Mumbai-Pune regions.

The state's recovery rate improved from 92.49 percent to 92.52 percent, while the current mortality rate stood at 2.58 percent.

Simultaneously, another chunk of 5,027 fully recovered patients returned home, but owing to the removal of 1,231 duplicate entries, the total number of recoveries went up to 16,95,208, much higher than the 88,537 active cases currently present in the state.

Of the 111 deaths reported on Wednesday, Mumbai again led the chart with 20 fatalities, followed by 15 in Pune, 13 in Nagpur, 10 in Nashik, 8 in Palghar, 7 in Thane, 6 in Osmanabad, 5 each in Ahmednagar and Solapur, 4 in Aurangabad, 3 each in Sangli and Chandrapur, 2 each in Raigad, Sindhudurg and Gondia, and 1 each in Jalgaon, Nandurbar, Jalna, Nanded and Buldhana.

Remaining in the sub-50 range for a month now, Mumbai reported 20 fatalities, taking the city's overall death toll to 10,913. The city's new cases remained below the 1,000-mark as it added 877 new infections to take its overall toll to 282,818.

Of the total 8 circles, the Mumbai circle (MMR, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) recorded 37 new deaths, pushing up the toll to 18,574, while a spike of 1,697 new cases took its Covid tally to 633,463.

Pune circle (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) reported 20 fatalities, taking its death toll to 10,840, while 1,272 new cases pushed its Covid tally to 457,918.

The number of people sent to home quarantine increased from 538,084 to 547,791, while the number of those in institutional quarantine went down from 6,420 to 6,073 on Wednesday.