Mumbai, May 22 (IANS): Maharashtras Covid death toll shot past the 87,000-mark on Saturday though new infections dropped and remained below the 30,000 level, health officials said.

Compared to with the peak of 1,263 deaths reported on Friday, the state's fatalities dropped to 682 on Saturday, taking its overall death toll to 87,300, the worst in the country.

The number of fresh cases remained below the 30,000-mark at 26,133, taking the state's Covid tally to 55,53,225 till now.

In Mumbai, 1,268 new cases took the city's Covid tally to 695,483 till date, after touching the highest daily spike of 11,206 cases on April 4 last month, while 52 fatalities mounted its Covid death toll to 14,516.

The state's death rate continued to remain stable at 1.57 per cent, while its active caseload stood at 352,247 on Saturday.

On a brighter note, 40,294 fully cured patients returned home on Saturday, more than the number of fresh infections, taking the state's overall recoveries to 51,11,095, as the recovery rate improved from 91.74 per cent on Friday to 92.04 per cent now.

The Mumbai Circle (MMR) - comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts - recorded a drop in new cases, from 3,780 a day before to 3,603 now, compared to the peak of 19,953 infections recorded on April 11.

With the latest additions, MMR's caseload has shot up to 15,04,985, while 106 fatalities on Saturday took its death toll to 26,720.

Of the day's 682 deaths, Pune and Beed led the chart with 53 fatalities each, followed by 52 in Mumbai, 43 each in Solapur and Kolhapur, 37 in Aurangabd, 36 each in Ahmednagar and Sangli, 32 in Raigad, 31 in Nashik, 29 in Gadchiroli, 18 in Wardha, 17 each in Sindhudurg, Osmanabad and Amravati, 16 in Latur, 15 in Satara, 14 each in Ratnagiri and Nagpur, 13 in Yavatmal, 12 each in Palghar and Jalgaon, 11 in Akola, 10 in Thane, 9 each in Nanded and Chandrapur, 8 in Washim, 7 in Jalna, 6 in Hingoli, 4 each in Parbhani and Buldhana, and 2 each in Dhule and Nandurbar.

Meanwhile, the number of people under home isolation in the state stood at 27,55,729, while 22,103 persons were shunted to institutional quarantine on Saturday.