By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, Jun 19 (IANS): Maharashtra on Friday notched its highest number of Covid-19 cases at 3,827 - outstripping Thursday's 3,752, while Mumbai recorded 114 deaths, the highest on a single day till date.

The state death toll again shot up from Thursday's 100 to 142, but down by 36 from the previous peak of 178 recorded on June 15, health officials said.

The state's toll has now climbed to 5,893 and total cases shot up to 124,331 till date - the highest in the country.

For most days in June, the state has been recording three-digit highs of deaths and over 3,000 new patients.

Friday's numbers work out to roughly one death every 10 minutes, and a whopping 159 new cases notched every hour in the state, with a mortality rate of 4.74 per cent.

The Health Department said of the total number of cases declared till date, 55,651 were active - a number lower than the number of patients cured.

Mumbai's latest fatalities took the toll to 3,425 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here went up by 1,264 cases to touch 64,139 now.

The situation in Dharavi - Asia's biggest slum - however, continues to improve with only 17 new cases, taking the total to 2,151 and the number of fatalities remaining unchanged at 77.

Besides Mumbai's 114 deaths, there were eight fatalities in Aurangabad, five in Palghar, three each in Raigad, Nashik, Dhule, and Jalgaon, two in Thane, and one in Solapur, while Pune district emerged without a death first time in over a month.

On the positive side, a total of 1,935 fully cured patients returned home on Friday, taking the number of those discharged from 62,773 now - higher than the 55,651 active cases'.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday sanctioned a total of Rs 16.50 crore to upgrade and ramp up Covid-19 testing facilities at the Sassoon Hospital, Pune's biggest government hospital.

Health Minister Rajesh Tope said an experimental project of 'Tele-ICU', in collaboration with Mediscape Foundation, has been launched in Mumbai, Thane, Jalgaon, Solapur, Aurangabad, Akola and Jalna for treating serious Covid-19 patients.

Specialist doctors will treat the most serious patients from different parts of the state, with technology, and if the project is successful, it will be extended to more districts, he said.

The MMR (Thane Division) remains critical with a total of 4,277 Covid-19 deaths, and the number of positive cases rising to 91,468.

Thane - with 22,033 cases and 675 fatalities - has emerged as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district has dropped to the third position with 14,704 patients and 610 deaths till now. However, Pune Division ranks second (after MMR) with 17,627 patients and 829 deaths.

The next major region of concern is Nashik Division with 388 deaths and 5,456 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 193 fatalities and 3,817 cases, and finally Akola Division with 96 deaths and 1,993 cases.

Latur Division has 35 deaths and 728 cases, Kolhapur Division 40 deaths and 1,646 patients, and finally Nagpur Division with 15 deaths and 1,487 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased to 591,049 now, while those in institutional quarantine decreased to 25,697.

With two more labs opening on Friday, the number of testing facilities have gone up to 103 - 60 government and 43 private - for Covid-19 tests.