Mumbai, Aug 28 (IANS) For the third consecutive day, Maharashtras Covid cases continued to soar with 300-plus fatalities and 14,000-plus new infections, with the Pune region crossing 5,000 cases as the burden of the virus spreads to non-metro regions in the state, health officials said here on Friday.

With 14,361 new cases, lower than the record high of 14,888 (August 26), the state's total cases shot up from 733,568 to 747,995 now, and with 331 more fatalities, the death toll rose from 23,444 to 23,775 - both highest among all states in the country.

There was one death roughly every 4 minutes and 598 new cases added every hour to the state's tally, with the load of deaths and cases gradually shifting to non-metro areas.

The state's recovery rate increased from 72.46 per cent to 72.62 per cent, while the current mortality rate stood at 3.18 per cent on Friday.

Against this, 11,607 fully recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients from 531,563 to 543,170 till date - considerably higher than the 180,718 active cases currently in the state.

Of the 331 fatalities, Pune circle led the state with 58 deaths, followed by 32 in Thane, 30 in Mumbai, 29 in Nashik, 24 in Sangli, 22 in Kolhapur, and 21 in Nagpur - in the higher bracket.

Besides, there were 13 fatalities in Jalgaon and 12 in Aurangabad - in the middle-range.

On the lower side, there were 9 deaths each in Dhule, Solapur and Satara, 8 each in Latur and Amravati, 6 each in Palghar and Raigad, 5 in Beed, 4 each in Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri and Parbhani, 3 each in Ahmednagar, Nandurbar and Hingoli, 2 each in Osmanabad, Yavatmal and Washim, 1 each in Jalna, Nanded and Buldhana.

The day's highlights were a sudden spurt in fatalities in Nashik, Sangli and Kolhapur districts, while 6 districts reported zero deaths.

Remaining below the 50-range for the past 15 days, with 30 fatalities Mumbai's death toll increased from 7,535 to 7,565 and the number of cases increased by 1,217 to touch 142,108 now.

Of the total 8 Circles, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Thane circle, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains on the brink as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with fatalities shooting up by 74 from 12,521 a day earlier to 12,595 and with 3,296 new infectees, the total cases shot up from 320,868 a day earlier to 324,167A now.

Pune district cases touched 165,592 till date with the fatalities increasing from 3,916 a day earlier to 3,974.

Thane district is in third spot (after Pune and Mumbai) as it witnessed 128,685 cases and the death toll increased from 3,677 the previous day to 3,709 now.

With 76 more fatalities, the Pune circle's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll increased from 4,964 to 5,040 and the case tally zoomed up by a staggering 4,653 to reach 196,183 now.

Nashik circle recorded 2,205 fatalities and 90,223 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle's 1,117 deaths and 36,434 cases, and Aurangabad circle saw 889 fatalities and 30,131 cases.

Next is Latur circle with 711 fatalities and 23,667 cases, inching close is Nagpur circle with 707 deaths and 30,222 cases, followed by Akola division's 441 fatalities and 16,257 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine decreased from 13,24,232 to 13,01,346 now while the number of those in institutional quarantine went up from 33,641 to 34,908 on Friday.