Mumbai, May 16 (IANS): Maharashtra on Sunday saw Covid-19 new infections drop but the state's deaths kept increasing to cross 81,000, though there was also an increase in the recovery rate, health officials said.

Against 960 deaths on Saturday, the state fatalities were at 974, taking the toll to 81,486 now.

Remaining below the 50,000-level, the cases dropped from 34,848 to 34,389, to take the tally to 3,78,452 now.

The Mumbai situation continued to improve, with the infections remaining below the 3K-level, but increasing to 1,535, taking the city tally to 687,830, while with 60 more deaths, the total fatalities in the country's commercial capital went up to 14,224.

After three days, the state death rate worsened slightly from 1.51 per cent to 1.52 per cent now, though the number of active cases fell from 494,032 to 468,109.

Meanwhile 59,318 fully cured patients, again higher than the number of fresh infections, returned home, taking the total to 48,26,371, while the recovery rate further improved from 89.02 per cent to 89.74 per cent now.

The Mumbai circle - comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts - recorded a fall in new cases, taking its case-load to 14,83,823, while with 152 more deaths, the toll rose to 25,788 now.

Of the day's fatalities, Nagpur again led with 104 deaths, while there were 98 in Kolhapur, 85 in Solapur, 62 in Pune, 60 in Mumbai, 55 in Chandrapur, 45 in Aurangabad, 44 in Nashik, 43 in Nanded, 38 in Amravati, 36 in Beed, 35 in Thane, 34 in Sangli, 31 in Jalgaon, 30 in Raigad, 27 in Palghar, 21 in Ahmednagar, 20 in Parbhani, 17 each in Latur and Yavatmal, 13 in Jalna, 12 in Washim, 10 in Sindhudurg, nine in Nandurbar, eight in Satara, six each in Wardha and Gadchiroli, four in Osmanabad, and one each in Hingoli, Akola, Buldhana, and Gondia.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation stood at 34,91,981 now, while those in institutional quarantine was 28,398.