Mumbai, Aug 19 (IANS): A day after notching the highest Covid deaths, Maharashtra on Wednesday recorded a new peak of cases, even as the state toll crossed 21,000, health officials said.

The state recorded a high of 13,165 new cases - surpassing the previous high of 12,822 patients on August 8 - taking the state's tally to 628,642, while with 346 more fatalities, the death toll shot up to 21,033. Both are highest in the country.

There was one death roughly every 4 minutes and 548 new cases every hour on Wednesday, with the load of deaths gradually shifting to non-metro areas.

The state's recovery rate decreased from 71.14 per cent to 71.09 per cent, while the mortality rate stood at 3.3 per cent.

A total of 9,011 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 446,881 till date - considerably higher than the state's current 160,413 active cases.

Of the total 346 fatalities, Pune again topped the list with 86 deaths, followed by 46 in Mumbai, 42 in Thane and 26 in Nagpur.

There were also 18 deaths in Sangli, 15 each in Solapur and Kolhapur, 14 in Palghar, 13 in Ahmednagar, 10 in Yavatmal, nine each in Jalgaon and Satara, seven in Raigad, six each in Nashik and Osmanabad, four in Bhandara, three each in Dhule, Parbhani, and Latur, two each in Sindhudurg, Beed, and Akola, and one each in Aurangabad, Hingoli, Wardha, and Gondiya, besides one from another state.

While dropping below the 50-level for the sixth consecutive day, Mumbai's toll increased to 7,268 and 1,132 new cases took its tally to 131,542.

Of the total eight divisions, the MMR (Thane division) remained a hotspot with the fatalities shooting up by 109 to 1,885 and 3,450 new cases taking the total infectees to 295,496.

Pune district notched 137,601 cases with the fatalities increasing to 3,422, while Thane district was on the third spot, recording 117,325 cases with the death toll increasing to 3,442.

With 110 more fatalities, the Pune division's death toll rose to 4,338 and the case tally zoomed up with 3,440 new cases to 161,286.

Nashik division has recorded 1,803 fatalities and 68,982 cases, followed by Kolhapur division with 780 deaths and 26,433 cases, Aurangabad division, now pushed behind, with 774 fatalities and 25,798 cases, Latur division with 532 fatalities and 17,316 cases, Nagpur division with 466 deaths and 19,440 cases, followed by Akola division with 392 fatalities and 13,315 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased to 11,62,450 now, while those in institutional quarantine went down to 37,094.