Mumbai, Apr 26 (IANS): In a breather, Maharashtra saw new Covid-19 deaths and cases fall sharply on Monday though the state tally crossed the 43 lakh mark and fatalities went past 65,000, health officials said here.
The state recorded 524 deaths -- down from the highest 832 on Sunday, taking up its toll to 65,284 now, the worst in the country.
Dropping below the 50,000 mark in over a fortnight, from the record high of 68,631 (April 18), the daily case tally was 48,700, taking the cumulative total to 43,43,727.
The Mumbai situation continued to improve with a steep decline in in new infections from 5,498 on Sunday to 3,840, while the tally rose to 631,484 till date.
However, Mumbai's daily deaths rose to 71 now, and the total fatalities in the country's commercial capital went up to 12,861.
The state death rate fell again from 1.51 per cent to 1.05 percent, and the number of active cases dropped considerably from 698,354 to 674,770 now.
On the brighter side, 71,736 fully cured patients returned home, taking the total recoveries to 36,01,796 now, and the recovery rate improved from 82.19 per cent on Sunday to 82.92 per cent now.
Even the Mumbai Circle - comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, and Raigad districts - recorded a massive fall in new cases from 14,296 on Sunday to 9,683 now, taking up the tally to 13,25,582, while 130 more deaths, the toll shot up to 22,755.
Of the day's total fatalities, Mumbai led with 71 deaths, while there were 58 in Aurangabad, 41 in Ahmednagar, 38 in Nagpur, 25 in Nanded, 22 each in Raigad and Beed, 21 each in Latur and Yavatmal, 20 in Palghar, 19 in Satara, 18 each in Jalna and Osmanabad, 17 each in Thane and Nashik, 14 each in Pune and Amravati, 13 in Sindhudurg, 10 in Gadchiroli, nine in Sangli, eight in Solapur, six in Parbhani, five each in Akola, Washim, and Gondia, two each in Nandurbar and Chandrapur, and one each in Kolhapur, Wardha, and Bhandara.
Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation decreased to 39,78,420, while those shunted to institutional quarantine went up to 30,398.