Mumbai, Jul 17 (IANS): Maharashtra on Friday notched its second highest one-day number of Covid-19 infections at 8,308, besides 258 deaths, four months after the first fatality was recorded in the state on March 17, health officials said here.

The number of deaths in the state remained above the 200-mark at 258 on Friday, lower than the previous one-day record toll of 295 notched on July 4.

However, Friday's new cases tally at 8,308 was lower than the peak of 8,641 recorded on July 16.

With the fresh fatalities, the state's death toll went up from 11,194 a day earlier to 11,452, while the total cases touched 292,589, both highest in the country.

According to Friday's figures, every hour, roughly 11 deaths were recorded and a staggering 346 new cases added in the state.

The recovery rate in the western state decreased from 55.63 per cent a day earlier to 54.81 per cent on Friday, while the mortality (death) rate stood at 3.91 per cent.

Spelling relief, the Centre said that Mumbai's recovery rate is an impressive 70 per cent of the total cases, which is 7 percent higher than the national average and also 15 per cent higher than the state's recovery rate.

The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 120,480 are 'active cases' (ill) and that this number is lower (favourable) vis-a-vis the number of patients cured and discharged, indicating a positive sign, said the health officials.

On the positive side, 2,217 recovered persons returned home on Friday, taking the total number of discharged patients to 160,357 - considerably higher than the 120,480 'active cases' in the state.

Of the total 258 fatalities, Mumbai alone recorded 62 deaths, taking up the city toll from 5,523 to 5,585, and the number of corona cases increased by 1,214 to touch 99,164 now.

Besides, Mumbai's 62 deaths, there were 57 fatalities in Thane, 45 in Pune, 25 in Nashik, 12 in Palghar, 9 in Solapur, 8 in Raigad, 6 in Nanded, 5 each in Satara and Aurangabad, 4 each in Jalna and Jalgaon,A3 in Ahmednagar, 2 each in Kolhapur, Latur, Amravati and Osmanabad, 1 each in Ratnagiri, Hingoli, Beed, Nagpur and one from another state.

The MMR (Thane Division) remains on the brink as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the current toll at 7,985 and a staggering 3,884 new patients, pushing up the number of cases to 192,257.

Thane cases have touched 71,345 with 1,964 fatalities to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district continues to zoom ahead by notching 49,037 cases, with the death toll increasing from 1,200 a day earlier to 1,282 on Friday.

The Pune Division's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll reached 1,734 with the case tally touching 56,293 - but remains far behind MMR and Thane district.

The next major region of concern is Nashik Division with 864 fatalities and 18,925 cases, followed by Aurangabad Division notching 424 deaths and 11,108 cases, and Akola Division recording 180 fatalities and 4,303 cases.

All the eight divisions recorded fatalities on Friday, 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 sharply from 710,394 to 724,602 now, while those in institutional quarantine went up from 42,833 to 44,284 on Friday.