Mumbai, Dec 6 (IANS): After five days of highs, Maharashtra's Covid-19 deaths dropped below the 50-mark while new cases remained under the 5,000-mark even as recoveries improved, health authorities said on Sunday.

The state reported 40 deaths, taking the toll to 47,734, while the new infections dropped below the 5,000 mark for the second day with 4,757 fresh cases, taking the tally to 18,52,266.

While 19 of the state's 36 districts reported fatalities - and all reported new infections - the bulk of deaths came from the Mumbai-Pune regions.

The state recovery rate improved, rising up from 92.88 per cent to 93.04 per cent -while the mortality rate stood stable at 2.58 per cent.

Another chunk of 7,486 fully recovered patients returned home - taking the total number discharged to 17,23,370 till date, against the 80,079 active cases, which dipped for the fourth day.

Of the latest deaths declared, Mumbai led with 13 fatalities, while five died in Nagpur, four in Satara, three in Pune, two each in Thane and Solapur, one each in Raigad, Nashik, Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Sangli, Sindhudurg, Latur, Buldhana, Washim, Chandrapur, besides one outsider.

Mumbai, remaining in the sub-50 range for over a month now, saw its toll drop from 10,964 on Saturday to 10,896, owing to a reconciliation of figures, while its cases continued below the 1,000-mark and with 786 new infections, the total went up from to 286,053.

Mumbai circle (MMR) recorded 15 new deaths - but the toll reduced from 18,652 to 18,607 and with another spike of 1,488 new infectees, the total cases shot up to 640,005.

Pune circle recorded 9 fatalities but owing to reconciliation of figures, the death toll zoomed up from 10,916 to 10,950, while the daily infections increased by 918 to 462,117 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine decreased to 556,085, while the number of those in institutional quarantine went up to 5,903 on Sunday.