Mumbai, Jul 17 (IANS): Maharashtra on Thursday notched a new high of 8,641 Covid-19 cases and also recorded the second highest death count, as Thane district recorded its highest figure of fatalities, health officials said here.

The number of fatalities in the state again shot above the 200-mark to 266 on Thursday - the second highest after July 4's 295 deaths.

Thursday's new cases surpassed the previous high of 8,139 on July 11.

With the fresh fatalities, the state's death toll went up to 11,194 while the total cases touched 284,281, both highest in the country.

According to Thursday's figures, one death was recorded roughly every 5 minutes and a staggering 360 new cases added every hour in the state.

The recovery rate in the western state, however, increased from 55.37 per cent a day earlier to 55.63 per cent on Thursday, while the mortality rate stood at 3.94 per cent.

The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 114,648 are active cases.

On the positive side, 5,527 recovered persons returned home on Thursday, taking the total number of discharged patients to 158,140.

Of the 266 fatalities, Thane notched the highest figure of 89 deaths, overtaking Mumbai for the fifth time this month.

Mumbai recorded 56 deaths, taking up the city toll from to 5,523, and the number of corona cases increased by 1,476 to 97,950 on Thursday.

There were also 37 deaths in Pune, 30 in Raigad, nine in Nashik, six in Palghar, five each in Aurangabad and Nandurbar, four each in Ahmednagar, Osmanabad and Latur, three each in Amravati and Buldhana, two each in Kolhapur, Beed, Yavatmal and Jalgaon, and one each in Ratnagiri, Solapur and Akola.

The MMR (Thane division) remains on the brink as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the current toll at 7,846 and a staggering 4,473 new patients, pushing up the number of cases to 188,373 on Thursday.

Thane district's cases are 69,471 with 1,907 fatalities, making it the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district continues to zoom ahead by notching 46,668 cases, with the death toll increasing to 1,237 on Thursday.

The Pune division's death toll reached 1,675 with the case tally touching 53,662 - but it remains far behind MMR.

Nashik division has 832 fatalities and 18,177 cases, followed by Aurangabad division notching 414 deaths and 10,714 cases, and Akola division recording 178 fatalities and 4,167 cases.

Kolhapur Division has reported 87 deaths and 3,550 cases, Latur division 101 fatalities and 2,305 cases, and Nagpur division 30 deaths and 3,114 cases.

Of the eight divisions in the state, only Nagpur did not report any fatalities on Thursday, while only Chandrapur (out of total 36) remains a 'zero Covid death district' till date, though all divisions and districts have notched fresh cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased to 710,394, while those in institutional quarantine went down to 42,833.