Mumbai, Jul 26 (IANS): For the third consecutive day, Maharashtra notched a downslide in Covid-19 cases and deaths, though Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) continued to cause concerns as fatalities crossed the 9K-mark on Sunday, health officials said.

The state notched 9,431 new Covid cases, down from the highest tally of 10,576 (July 22), though fresh cases continued to soar in the 8K-plus range.

The number of deaths in the state continued in the 200-plus range with 267 fatalities notched on Sunday -- lower than the peak single day record toll of 298 recorded on July 23.

With the fresh fatalities, the state's death toll went up from 13,389 a day earlier to 13,656 now, while the total cases touched 375,799 -- both highest in the country.

According to Sunday's figures, there was one death roughly every 5 minutes and a stupendous 393 new cases every hour added to the state tally.

The state recovery rate increased for the third day to 56.74 per cent on Sunday, while the current mortality rate stood at 3.63 per cent.

The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 148,601 are active cases and that this number is lower vis-a-vis the number of patients cured and discharged, indicating a positive sign, said the health officials.

On the positive side, 6,044 recovered patients returned home on Sunday, taking the total number of discharged patients to 213,238 -- considerably higher than the 148,601 active cases currently in the state.

Of the total 267 fatalities, Mumbai recorded 57 deaths, taking up the toll in the country's commercial capital to 6,093 while the number of corona cases increased by 1,101 to touch 109,161 now.

Besides Mumbai's 57 deaths, there were 55 fatalities in Pune, 48 in Thane, 19 in Raigad, 15 in Jalgaon, 12 in Satara, 9 in Aurangabad, 8 in Solapur, 6 in Palghar, 5 each in Nashik and Akola, 3 each in Kolhapur, Latur, Sangli, Yavatmal and Buldhana, 2 each in Dhule and Nagpur, and 1 each in Nandurbar, Jalna, Hingoli, Parbhani, Osmanabad, Amravati, Washim and Wardha.

The MMR (Thane Division) remains on the edge as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the current toll increasing by 130 for the third time in one week to cross the 9K mark and touch 9,025 and a staggering 3,426 new cases, pushing up the number to touch 224,266.

Thane cases have touched 86,358 with 2,346 fatalities to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district continues to race ahead by notching 76,203 cases, with the death toll increasing from 1,738 a day earlier to 1,793 on Sunday.

With 75 more deaths, the Pune Division's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll reached 2,345 while the case tally touched 87,081.

The next major region of concern is Nashik Division which recorded 1,065 fatalities and 27,862 cases, followed by Aurangabad Division notching 540 deaths and 14,540 cases, and Akola Division recording 226 fatalities and 6,207 cases.

Next on the list is Kolhapur Division which has notched 182 deaths and 6,819 cases, followed by Latur Division with 174 fatalities and 4,028 cases, and Nagpur Division with 53 deaths and 4,662 cases.

Continuing the trend of the past week, all the eight divisions recorded fatalities on Sunday, while Chandrapur (out of total 36) still remains a ‘zero-Covid-death district' till date, though each division and district in the state notched fresh cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased from 894,509 to 908,420 now, while those in institutional quarantine went down from 44,603 to 44,276 on Sunday.