Mumbai, Jul 19 (IANS): Touching a new high, Maharashtra's Covid-19 cases on Sunday climbed over the 9,000 mark, while deaths again shot above the 200 level, health officials said.

The state notched a staggering new 9,518 cases, higher than the 8,641 recorded on July 16.

The number of deaths increased sharply from 144 on Saturday to 258 on Sunday, but were still less than the earlier single day's toll of 295 on July 4.

With the fresh fatalities, death toll went up to 11,854, while the total cases reached 310,455 - both highest in the country.

According to Sunday's figures, there was one death roughly every 6 minutes and a staggering 397 new cases every hour in the state.

The recovery rate marginally dropped to 54.62 per cent on Sunday, while the mortality rate stood at 3.82 per cent.

The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 128,730 are active.

On the positive side, 3,906 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 169,569.

Of the total 258 fatalities, Mumbai recorded 64 deaths, taking up the city toll to 5,714, and the number of corona cases increased by 1,038 to touch 101,388 now.

There were also 60 deaths in Thane, 45 in Pune, 13 in Raigad, 12 in Palghar, 11 in Jalgaon, 10 in Nashik, seven in Nagpur, six in Sangli, five each in Aurangabad and Satara, four in Latur, two each in Ratnagiri, Ahmednagar, Akola, and Solapur, and one each in Dhule, Nandurbar, Kolhapur, Jalna, Parbhani, Osmanabad, Yavatmal, and Washim.

With complaints of alleged fleecing by private hospitals, the state government has appointed an independent auditor who will vet all the bills issued to patients before payment.

The decision was announced by Health Minister Rajesh Tope at a review meeting in Solapur presided over by Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar.

In a shocking development, a suspected Covid-19 patient jumped off the fifth floor of a corona hospital in Kalyan and died on the spot. The motive behind him taking the extreme step is being probed.

The MMR (Thane division) remains on the brink as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the current toll at 8,220 and a staggering 3,789 new cases pushing up the tally to 199,835.

Thane's cases have touched 75,111 with 2,036 fatalities to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district continues to zoom ahead with 54,624 cases, with the death toll increasing to 1,359 on Sunday.

The Pune division's death toll reached 1,823 with the case tally touching 62,590 - but it remains far behind MMR and Thane district.

Nashik division has 895 fatalities and 20,582 cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 435 deaths and 11,913 cases, and Akola division with 188 fatalities and 4,644 cases.

Next is Kolhapur division which has notched 104 deaths and 4,440 cases, Latur division has had 119 fatalities and 2,749 cases, and Nagpur division 38 deaths and 3,447 cases.

All the eight divisions recorded fatalities on Sunday, while only Chandrapur (out of total 36) remains a zero Covid death district till date.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased sharply to 754,370, while those in institutional quarantine went up to 45,846 on Sunday.