Mumbai, Mar 17 (IANS): Exactly a year after recording the first Covid-19 fatality in Mumbai this day in 2020, Maharashtra's Corona deaths on Wednesday crossed the 53K-mark, even as the state recorded a whopping 23,179 fresh infections, health officials said here.

The figure of new cases in the state has come tantalisingly close to the highest ever daily load of 24,886 recorded on Sep. 11, 2020, followed by 515 deaths on a singly day on Sep. 15, last year.

With 84 deaths on Thursday, the state toll till date has reached 53,080 fatalities, with a fatality rate of 2.24 percent and a recovery rate which has dropped to 91.26 percent now.

As stated by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Health Minister Rajesh Tope earlier, the death rate is low in the current wave though the high number of cases pose a serious concern in the state.

The burden of cases and fatalities remains heavy in Mumbai, Nashik, Nagpur circles, with Aurangabad and Latur circles also recording increasing figures in recent weeks.

Of the 84 deaths, Nagpur led the state with 16 fatalities, 9 in Thane, 8 each in Mumbai and Nashik, 7 in Jalna, 6 in Amravati, 5 in Aurangabad, 4 in Raigad, 3 in Nanded, 2 each in Ahmednagar, Solapur, Beed, Wardha, Chandrapur and Gadchiroli, 1 each in Jalgaon, Nandurbar, Satara, Ratnagiri, Osmanabad, and one outsider.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine stood at 671,620 while the figure of those in institutional quarantine was 6,738 on Wednesday.