Mumbai, Aug 5 (IANS): Maharashtra on Wednesday witnessed a new high of 334 Covid-19 deaths in a day even as the new coronavirus cases across the state zoomed above 10K-mark, health officials said here.

The previous peak of 322 deaths was recorded on August 1 in the western state, which recorded 10,309 new coronavirus cases in a day. However, it is lower than the July 30 peak of 11,147 cases.

With 334 more fatalities, the state's death toll shot up from 16,142 a day earlier to 16,476 on Wednesday, while the total cases touched 468,265 -- both figures being the highest in the country.

According to Wednesday's figures, there was one death roughly every 4 minutes and an alarming 430 new cases every hour added to the state's tally.

Maharashtra's recovery rate decreased marginally after nine days, dropping from 65.37 per cent to 65.25 per cent on Wednesday, while the current mortality (death) rate stood stable at 3.52 per cent.

The Health Department said that of the total cases, 145,961 are active cases, and that this number is lower (favourable) vis-a-vis the number of patients cured and discharged, which is a positive sign.

On another positive note, 6,165 recovered patients were discharged on Wednesday, taking the total such cases to 305,521 -- considerably higher than the 145,961 'active cases' currently in the state.

Of the total 334 fatalities, Pune recorded the highest 92 deaths, followed by Thane's 69, both pushing behind Mumbai.

Mumbai's deaths again dropped in the sub-50 range. With 42 more fatalities, the city's death toll increased from 6,549 to 6,591 and the number of new corona cases increased by 1,125 to 119,240.

Besides, there were 36 deaths in Raigad, 12 in Kolhapur, 10 in Nashik, 9 in Solapur, 8 in Palghar, 7 each in Sangli and Nagpur, 5 each in Aurangabad and Nanded, 4 each in Jalgaon and Nandurbar, 3 each in Ahmednagar, Satara, Latur, Osmanabad and Wardha, 2 each in Dhule, Ratnagiri and Beed, and one each in Jalna and Amravati, besides one from another state.

The MMR (Thane division, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains on the edge as cases pile up and the death toll shot up sharply by 155 to touch 10,243 fatalities. As many as 3,228 new cases pushed up the total to 254,365.

Pune district's cases overshot the 1-lakh mark with a total of 101,262 cases, and its death toll increased from 2,342 a day earlier to 2,434 on Wednesday.

Cases in Thane district climbed up to 99,563 apart from 2,823 fatalities to make it the third worst-hit district after Mumbai and Pune.

With 104 more fatalities, the death toll of Pune division(comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) reached 3,130. As many as 2,870 new cases took its tally to 116,364, though it remains far behind MMR.

Another area of major concern is Nashik division with 1,306 fatalities and 40,659 cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 642 deaths and 18,428 cases, and Kolhapur division with 353 fatalities and 13,058 cases.

Next on the list is Latur division, that has recorded 297 fatalities and 7,944 cases, Akola division with 286 fatalities and 8,703 cases, and Nagpur division with 166 deaths and 8,288 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine in Maharashtra decreased from 944,442 to 943,658, while those in institutional quarantine went down from 43,906 to 36,466 on Wednesday.