Mumbai, Apr 22 (IANS): For the second day running, Maharashtra reported record number of Covid deaths with its overall toll racing past the 62,000-mark, with a spike in the number of active cases as the state entered a tougher phase of lockdown from tonight, health officials said on Thursday.

The state's fatalities remained at the peak of 568 notched on April 21, as the overall toll shot past the 62,000-mark to 62,479, the worst in the country.

Dropping a little from the record high of 68,631 new cases notched on April 18, the state on Thursday reported 67,013 fresh Covid cases, taking its overall tally to 40,94,840.

The situation in Mumbai improved a bit with a drop in new infections from 7,654 on Wednesday to 7,367 on Thursday, taking the city's Covid tally to 609,080 till date, 18 days after it reported the highest daily spike of 11,206 cases on April 4.

Mumbai's fatalities continued to increase from 62 on Wednesday to 75 on Thursday, taking its overall death toll to 12,583, the highest for a single city in the country.

On a brighter note, a total of 62,298 fully cured persons returned home on Thursday, taking the total number recoveries to 33,30,737, with the recovery improving slightly from 81.15 per cent on Wednesday to 81.34 per cent now.

The death rate again dropped from 1.54 per cent a day earlier to 1.53 per cent now, while the number of active cases increased to 699,858 on Thursday.

The Mumbai Circle -- comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts -- reported 17,195 new cases on Thursday, taking its overall tally to 12,69,529 now, while 12 deaths mounted its Covid death toll to 22,184.

Of the day's 568 fatalities, Mumbai again led the chart with 75 deaths, followed by 73 in Nagpur, 47 in Nanded, 37 in Yavatmal, 31 each in Raigad and Nashik, 30 in Ahmednagar, 24 in Osmanabad, 23 in Parbhani, 20 in Latur, 19 in Jalgaon, 18 in Thane, 17 each in Solapur and Satara, 12 in Akola, 11 in Beed, and 10 each in Sangli and Amravati -- on the higher range.

There were 9 deaths in Wardha, 8 each in Pune and Kolhapur, 7 each in Aurangabad and Jalna, 6 in Chandrapur, 5 in Dhule, 3 in Palghar, and 1 each in Nandurbar, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Hingoli, Washim, Gondia and Gadchiroli, besides 3 outsiders.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation increased from 39,15,292 to 39,71,917 now, while those shunted to institutional quarantine went up from 28,384 to 29,014 on Thursday.