Mumbai, Apr 29 (IANS): A day after recording the highest ever 1,035 Covid fatalities, Maharashtra's deaths came down by nearly one-fourth though Mumbai's toll continued to rise, with an increase in fresh infections, health officials said on Thursday.

Coming down from from over the 1,000-threshold, the state now recorded 771 deaths, the lowest in a week, taking its toll to 67,985.

The number of new infections remained above the 60,000 mark, at 66,159, and the state tally went above the 45 lakh mark to 45,39,553.

The Mumbai situation remained below the 5,000 level at 4,174, taking its tally to 644,583 till date.

However, Mumbai's daily deaths rose to 82, and the total fatalities in the country's commercial capital shot past the 13,000 mark to 13,036.

The state death rate remained stable at 1.05 per cent for the third day running, and the number of active cases decreased to 670,301.

On the brighter side, 68,537 fully cured patients returned home, taking the total from 37,30,379 to 37,99,266 now, with the recovery rate improving from 83.04 per cent on Wednesday to 83.69 per cent now.

Mumbai circle - comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts - recorded a drop in new cases to 11,344, while its tally stood at 13,59,739, and with 144 more deaths, the toll rose to 23,159 now.

Of the day's fatalities, Pune led with 146 deaths, while there were 82 in Mumbai, 65 in Nagpur, 47 in Thane, 38 in Ahmednagar, 36 in Solapur, 35 in Nashik, 32 in Satara, 30 in Jalgaon, 27 in Aurangabad, 26 in Nandurbar, 19 each in Kolhapur and Sangli, 18 in Jalna, 17 in Bhandara, 16 each in Beed and Yavatmal, 15 in Washim, 13 in Raigad, 12 in Sindhudurg, 11 in Nanded, eight deaths each in Amravati and Wardha, seven each in Parbhani and Osmanabad, six in Chandrapur, five in Hingoli, four in Latur, three in Ratnagiri, two in Palghar, and one in Akola.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation decreased to 41,19,759, while those shunted to institutional quarantine went down to 30,118.