By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, June 6 (IANS): For the fourth consecutive day, Maharashtra recorded 100-plus fatalities, adding 120 new Covid-19 deaths on Saturday, pushing up the states toll to 2,969, health officials said here.

The state recorded its fourth highest single-day death figures on Friday, making it the fourth time in June and the sixth time in the last 11 days that the state has witnessed a 100-plus toll.

The previous highs of three-digit tallies were -- a death toll of 103 (June 2), 122 (June 3), 123 (June 4), 139 (June 5) and 120 on Saturday.

Saturday's toll includes 90 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone -- the worst-hit in the country, besides 2,739 new positive cases added on Saturday in the state.

This comes to roughly one death every 12 minutes, and an average 114 new cases notched every hour in the state.

Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities and new patients over 2K daily for the past 12 days, with the previous single-day highest figures of 3,041 infections notched on May 24.

With 120 fatalities, the state death toll has touched 2,969 while the total number of coronavirus patients increased from Friday's 80,229 to 82,968 on Saturday.

The health department said that of the total number of cases declared till date, 42,600 are active cases on Saturday, marking an increase of 385 over Friday's 42,215.

The state has recorded an encouraging recovery rate of 45.06 per cent and a mortality rate of 3.57 per cent.

Of the total 120 fatalities on Saturday, 58 were recorded in Mumbai alone -- taking the city's death toll up from Friday's 1,519 to 1,577 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,274 cases to touch 47,354 now.

Besides Mumbai's 58 deaths, there were 30 fatalities in Thane (Thane, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Mira-Bhayander, Bhiwandi), 10 in Pune, 7 in Nashik, 5 in Satara, and 2 each in Palghar, Solapur, Aurangabad, Akola and Amravati.

The victims comprised 78 men and 42 women and nearly 56 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, a total of 2,234 fully cured patients returned home on Saturday, taking the number of those discharged to 37,390 now.

Dharavi -- Asia's biggest slum in Mumbai -- remained a problematic hotspot with 10 new cases getting reported on Saturday, taking the total number of infections to 1,899, besides 71 deaths till date.

Following instances of patients dying while waiting for ambulances, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to allot beds and send ambulances to Covid-19 or other seriously ailing patients at all its 24 wards through the 1916 Helpline.

In a noble initiative, the founder of an NGO, Mohit Bharatiya Foundation, Mohit Bharatiya, has submitted a proposal to the BMC on the disposal of Covid-19 or other types of dead bodies.

Bharatiya assured that the foundation, at its expense, will perform the last rites of all such bodies as per their religious tenets, adhering to full Covid-19 protocols and other procedures as stipulated by the BMC.

Meanwhile, the National Barbers' Confederation has given a call for a nationwide protest on June 10, against the government for not permitting hair-cutting salons and beauty parlours to resume their businesses, which has jeopardized the lives of over a million people in this state alone, said Dattatreya Anarase of the Maharashtra Nabhik Mahamandal.

The MMR (Thane Division) continued to cause grave concerns with 90 new Covid-19 deaths, taking the toll to 1,993 and positive cases touching 62,615 on Saturday.

Though trailing a distant third after MMR, Pune Division fatalities touched 523, besides 11,176 patients.

Since June 1, Thane district, with 12,464 cases and 322 fatalities, has zoomed past Pune district which has 9,289 patients and 400 deaths.

The next major region of concern is the Nashik Division with 230 deaths and 2,836 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 98 fatalities and 2,322 cases, and Akola Division with 60 deaths and 1,306 cases.

Latur Division has recorded 15 deaths and 474 cases, followed by Kolhapur Division with 20 deaths and 1,248 patients, and Nagpur Division with 12 deaths and 926 cases.

The number of people sent to home quarantine increased from Friday's 545,947 to 546,566 on Saturday, while those in institutional quarantine went down by 1,193 to 29,098 now.

In relieving news for patients, there are as many as 75,741 beds currently available for Covid-19 quarantine in the state.

The state's containment zones increased from 3,479 to 3,603 on Saturday while 18,422 health teams have fanned out around the state to survey a population of around 69.82 lakh till date.