With a new high of 12,822 cases, Maharashtra's Covid-19 tally on Saturday shot past the half-million mark, while the state saw 275 more deaths, health officials said.

Saturday's tally surpasses the previous peak of 11,514 cases on Thursday.

The total number of cases now stands at 503,084, and the death toll at 17,367 - both highest in the country. The Health Department said that of the total cases, 147,048 are active.

According to Saturday's figures, there was one death roughly every 5 minutes and a staggering 534 new cases every hour.

However, the state recovery rate rose to 67.26 per cent, while the current mortality rate stood at 3.45 per cent.

On Saturday, 11,081 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 338,262.

Of Saturday's fatalities, Pune again notched the highest deaths, at 67, followed by Mumbai's 58, and Thane's 48 deaths.

Mumbai's deaths -- again in the 50-plus range -- took its toll to 6,751, while the number of cases increased by 1,304 to 122,316.

There were also 17 deaths in Raigad, 14 in Palghar, nine in Kolhapur, eight each in Nashik, Dhule, and Sangli, seven in Solapur, six each in Jalna and Nagpur, four in Ratnagiri, three in Beed, two each in Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Aurangabad, and Yavatmal, and one each in Satara, Latur, Osmanabad, and Akola.

The MMR (Thane division) saw its toll shooting up sharply by 137 to 10,629, while 3,744 new cases took its tally to 263,619.

Pune district's total cases have now reached 109,988, with the death toll increasing to 2,633, while Thane district had 103,642 cases with 2,961 fatalities, as on Saturday.

With 75 more fatalities, the Pune division's death toll has reached 3,367 and the case tally zoomed up with 3,409 new cases to 126,715.

Nashik division has recorded 1,400 fatalities and 47,076 cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 668 deaths and 20,077 cases, Kolhapur division with 405 fatalities and 15,297 cases, Latur division with 327 fatalities and 9,822 cases, Akola division with 312 fatalities and 9,734 cases, and Nagpur division with 205 deaths and 10,243 cases.

Of the eight divisions, only Latur and Akola remain in the sub-10,000 cases bracket, though the numbers of new infectees continue to mount steadily.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine now stands at 989,612, while those in institutional quarantine total 35,625.